Israel had been home alone for four hundred years.
God had sent prophet after prophet to Israel, telling them to turn away from the evil that they were doing. But time and time again, Israel ignored the warnings of these men and, unsurprisingly, the kingdom fell into chaos on a fairly regular basis. And after ignoring the voice of God for so long, the Israelites suddenly found that they couldn't hear him at all. God stopped sending prophets for four hundred years.
If you're one of the few who hasn't seen Home Alone, the premise is that a little kid wishes his family would disappear. Then one morning he wakes up to find that they've accidentally left on a family trip without him. And for a while, he thinks things are pretty great. He eats popcorn while jumping on the bed, he watches scary movies, and he runs around the house doing whatever he wants. But it isn't long before he starts missing his mom, and in one of my favourite scenes in the movie, he asks "Santa" to get his family back instead of presents for Christmas.
Kevin is a surprisingly intelligent kid. He had figured out how to get groceries, decorate the house, and he pretty much single-handedly fought off two thieves from stealing everything in his house. I mean, sure, he poured tar all over the basement staircase and destroyed his brother's bedroom, but in the grand scheme of things I think we can cut him some slack. But here on Christmas morning, Kevin has to come to terms with an emptiness that no amount of fun childish pranks can fill. Being alone in a big empty house is something that he just can't fix on his own.
Israel didn't have their act together nearly as much as Kevin did. In the four hundred years of silence, they had been conquered by the Greeks, then the Egyptians, then the Syrians, and then the Romans. So things were a hot mess in Israel. Maybe here more than ever, the Israelites felt just like Kevin did here on Christmas morning. They knew that they were missing something that they needed desperately. And what they needed was something they couldn't make on their own. And that moment we just watched where Kevin realizes that nobody is with him for Christmas Day perfectly captures that. Imagine being exactly in Kevin's place. A kid who's all by himself - and just when he needs help the most, his parents are nowhere to be found. That's gotta be how the Israelites felt after everything they went through. Totally alone.
But then came Jesus.
See, unlike Kevin's mom, who genuinely and completely forgot about her son, God had never forgotten about his people. In fact, he'd been preparing for this world-changing moment ever since Adam and Eve left the Garden. Prophets had spoken of him. Real events foreshadowed him. The Passover - one of the most important Jewish celebrations - reflects Jesus' life and sacrifice in a mind-bendingly amazing way. So this moment of Jesus coming to earth to be with his people who had been suffering in isolation was a really big deal to God. But what really strikes me here is that when Jesus came to earth - when God stepped out of heaven to be with us on a physical and incredibly tangible way - most of us didn't even recognize him. Imagine if Kevin's mom had come in and Kevin didn't know who she was. Imagine being in her shoes there. But Jesus came anyway knowing that he had only 33 years to show the entire world who he was because of how much we meant to Him. Kevin's mom did some pretty crazy stuff to get home, but Jesus - the God of the universe - started in a smelly stable in a backwater town in a four-times-conquered nation. And it only got crazier from there.
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If you liked this, check out some of Matthew's other Christmas projects.