In Christmas, Jesus is the Mountain Top

What is so special about Christmas? What makes the birth of Jesus so significant? What is so earth-shattering about a baby born to an insignificant family who spends his first days in an animal feeding box, a manger?
The life of this baby born in Bethlehem is the mountain top, the continental divide of history. All prior history prepares for his arrival, and all subsequent history is judged on the basis of its response to Jesus. At the fall of Adam, God promises the restoration of humanity that Jesus will achieve. The many sacrifices in the temple showed Israel the need for a greater, ultimate sacrifice, that is Jesus sinless body. David's short-lived rule as king made the people long for a time when God would rule the people forever. Jesus is the one to bring this eternal kingdom. Even the feeble nature of Israel's restoration from Babylonian exile demonstrated that Israel still needed ultimate restoration.
The prophets in the Old Testament longed for Jesus coming. Peter says "Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow" (1 Peter 1:10-10). Men like Moses, David, Isaiah, and Micah spoke of Jesus with expectation. They were awaiting God's salvation and the arrival of Messiah with great eagerness.
At Christmas, Jesus put on flesh, God came into history. Then he lived a pure and sinless life, died for our sins, and rose from the dead. Jesus was not merely one of many enlightened masters of the Dao, or one of many gods. For through him the world was created, and Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Jesus is the only way. The only way to eternal life has Jesus at the center. At the end of history, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord on the basis of what began with a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem.
Jesus is the mountain top, the continental divide of history. He is the center point of history. Will you recognize this and make him the center of your life as well? Or will you close your eyes to the truth and miss the wonder of God's love? The great wonder of Christmas is this: the central figure of history can become our master and best friend.