Glorious Invader

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

Clearly, if God says that Jesus has a role in government, then Jesus has a role in government.  I don't understand all of what this verse means, but this is what comes to mind:
 
Right now,
Only Jesus is strong enough to bear the burden of man's choices, and only His intervention in our world sustains any form of human life or orderly system.  Jesus told us that He is Truth.  So in this case, can we equate "His shoulders" and "absolute truth"?  Any governmental system that man invents will fail.  It's just that some take longer than others.  Those founded on absolute truth -- Christ's shoulders -- whether or not He's given credit -- are the ones that last longer. When governments try to build on anything beside Christ's shoulders (absolute truth), they quickly disintegrate.

In the future,
As we witness governments removing themselves from Christs' shoulders, we can look forward with even more hope and joy to the day when Jesus will govern us directly, with no intervening manmade structure to mismanage, confuse, destroy, or oppress anyone.

What's so crazy to me is that just as we have the struggle over nativity scenes in public areas today, so Satan fought the original nativity scene -- witness Herod and the slaughter of the innocents.  But Jesus' birth was just the beginning: if Satan had known the full story of what Jesus would be doing on earth, boy, I don't know how he could have contained himself!  And today, as Satan continues to fight against nativity scenes and any mention of Christ in government, it's so clear that Satan is already defeated.  He's being petty.  He knows he can't take Jesus on head-on, so he's trying to gain token victories that will get the most mileage in order to deceive people into thinking he has a chance to win.  Satan's trying to fight against the One he knows has already defeated him.  Satan's best chance came when Jesus was a defenseless newborn lying in straw while a cow chewed the cud behind Him.  But he couldn't even defeat Him then!  Today, Christ has overcome death and Satan.  Soon, He's going to be coming back as King.

It's clear that Christ has overcome Satan, and soon Satan will be thrown into the pit.  Praise God!  But Satan is viciously struggling in his death throes because he wants to pull as many people down with him that he can.  He's spiteful, vengeful, and even if he realizes he has no chance of defeating Jesus directly, he knows he can still wound his heart by trying to pull away people that Jesus loves -- everyone.

That's why we're still fighting.  It's not that Jesus' victory isn't assured, or that Satan's defeat isn't for sure! 
Christmas isn't cutesy -- it's an act of war
That's why Christmas carols are so powerful -- it's singing joyfully about Christ's invasion into a battle that only He could win.  So sing 'em with gusto!

I love you all so much -- just wanted to show you this awesome, awesome verse!!!!
:)