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The second installment of Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord, The Road to Cana, climaxes with important discussions of time and surprise, appropriate for consideration at this time of the year.

The two novels present a breathe-taking portrait of everyday life in the Israel of the first century B.C. Time and history were divided into the now – The Present Age – and the future – The Age to Come. The present was a time of death and suffering of all kinds. The Present Evil Age was ruled by the Enemy. The Age to Come would usher in a time of milk and honey. The Kingdom of God would be won and ruled by the Son of David, Christ the King.

Then as now, the people lived and endured by hope. In his confrontation with Satan in the wilderness, Ms. Rice’s Yeshua presents time as a gift from God, rather as a miserable trap as described by the Enemy – “I would ask you where hope comes from, if not out of time?”

Because we live in the time/space continuum, we have the gift of hope. Whatever pain, disappointment, or suffering exists now, time marks God’s promise of something better to come.

Christmas celebrates the time when that promise was fulfilled. The birth of Jesus verified the Hebrew conception of time, by once and for all splitting the space/time continuum into history Before Christ and history After Christ, the time of the promise and the time of the fulfillment.

The birth of Christ was a total surprise in the way God fulfilled his promise. A King born in a stable? Announced only to shepherds? Gifts only from foreign kings? An event unknown to the vast majority of the very people who were hoping for it, dying for it?

And the promise was fulfilled only in part. The King presented a down payment of the life that is yet to come.

Surprise: As we remain in time, we can retain the gift of hope, since we look forward to the coming of the Kingdom of God in it’s fullness with the return of the King!

As Ms. Rice’s Yeshua explains after the wedding feast at Cana,

“Oh, I wish I could fix this as the final triumph, this lovely morning with its gentle paling sky. I wish I could open the gates for all to come and drink of this wine here and now, and that all pain and suffering and suspense would come to an end.

“But I wasn’t born for that. I was born to find the way to do this through Time. Yes, it is the Time of Pontius Pilate. Yes, it is the Time of Joseph Caiaphas. Yes, it is the Time of Tiberius Caesar. But those men are nothing to me. I’ve entered history for the whole of it. And I won’t be stopped. And I go now, disappointing you, yes, and to what village and town I head next, I don’t know, only that I go proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is on us, that the Kingdom of God is with us, that all must turn and take heed, and I will declare it where the Father tells me I must, and I will find before me the listeners—and the surprises—He has in store.” (240)

The Kingdom of God moves through surprises. It doesn’t some when or where we expect it, nor does it arrive  how we hope it will. But it does always break into our lives with power and surprise.

The meager trappings of our human Christmas celebrations mirror the greater reality of God’s Kingdom workings. Little children ask, “What time is it?” ”Is it time to go to bed?”, “Is it time to get up?” “Has Santa come?”

When we listen we can hear, singing, the answer about time:

Unto us is born THIS DAY a Savior, who is Christ  the Lord. Today marks the beginning of a new age – the Age to Come has arrived – and a new kingdom – the Kingdom of this World has become the Kingdom of our God. Already in Part, but Not Yet in Completeness!

On Christmas morning we find surprises waiting. But only when we unwrap them can our hope be fulfilled.

And as we begin to unwrap the mystery, we find that to all who accept this free, undeserved gift, who believe in his name, he has given us no less than the right to be A CHILD OF GOD!

Celebrate!