Birthdays are a funny thing because they are moments that simultaneously connect us with the past, the present, and the future.

Follow me here: on somebody's birthday, we celebrate the past tense fact that they were born and the present tense fact that they are where they are in their life. But we also look forward to a future tense hope by wishing them a great upcoming year of life.

I'm thinking particularly about that today because Christmas Day is drawing nearer by the day. And though we sometimes forget it, Christmas—at its core—is the celebration of somebody's birthday.

Even though nobody really knows the exact day that Jesus was born, December 25th is the date that we celebrate the fact that one very real evening slightly over 2,000 years ago, Jesus was born as a baby to two scared young parents whose lives were in such a state of craziness that the only place they could find for Jesus to be born was a barn in a town where they didn't even live.

And even more so than with other birthdays, there is a lot of history to be celebrated on Jesus' birthday. It is no small thing that God sent His only Son into the world to save us.

But this week, I've been reminded that there is more than just the past wrapped up in the birthday of Jesus.

There is history, but there are also present and future implications that should bring us hope and guide every moment of our lives.

With that in mind, let’s take a glimpse at something that might just blow your mind a little bit.

So about 700 past tense years before the birth of Jesus as a baby boy in a barn, God was talking to His Son Jesus in Heaven about the future, and He let a prophet named Isaiah listen in on that conversation so that we could know about it in the present. True story.

This is a part of that conversation from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible:

(Kudos to my daughter Aurora for bringing these words to my attention.)

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
    I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles,
 to open eyes that are blind,
    to free captives from prison
    and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
    I will not yield my glory to another
    or my praise to idols.
 See, the former things have taken place,
    and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
    I announce them to you.”

~Isaiah 42:6-9

Did you catch that? Seven hundred years before God sent Jesus into the world, He told Him that in His future he would be a guiding light for people just like us in our present. That He would open the eyes of the blind, and bring radical freedom to the world.

This Christmas season, we all need to remember the past tense facts of Jesus' birthday. But let’s also remember that we can walk in freedom right here in the present today because of Jesus. And He has a future planned for us that would put a smile on the saddest faces if only we could see it.

Trust Jesus today with the past, the present, and the future.

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