In the opening devotional of Matt and Josh LeRoy’s book “Protagonist”, they expand upon a point once made by C.S. Lewis: that Hamlet could never meet Shakespeare. Why? Because Hamlet was created by Shakespeare. While William Shakespeare knew everything about this character he invented, the character could never break out of the play or move off the page and into the world of his creator. Unless, Lewis pointed out, William Shakespeare wrote himself into the story as a character:

If Shakespeare and Hamlet could ever meet, it must be Shakespeare’s doing. Hamlet could initiate nothing…Shakespeare could, in principle, make himself appear as Author within the play, and write a dialogue between Hamlet and himself. The “Shakespeare” within the play would of course be at once Shakespeare and one of Shakespeare’s creatures. It would bear some analogy to Incarnation.

CS Lewis, Surprised by Joy

This is exactly what our Creator God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He has written himself into the story of his own creation, he has become one of his creators, so that he could be seen, heard, and touched by his own creations. That is the mystery of what we call the incarnation…God being made one of us. As the Leroys write, “The Author becomes the Protagonist.”

The goal of the season of Advent is to enter into the experience of the people of Israel in the 400 years in between the last prophetic word from God (given through Malachi) and the arrival of God’s anointed Christ. Through this season of hopeful anticipation, we realize that in our slavery to sin and need for a Savior, how great a gift has been given to us in Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace,

Clint