Now That Christmas Is Here, Here's a Look Back on the First Term

Now that my first term is (almost) over, I thought this would be a good opportunity to reflect on it. What did I learn?

That’s a very challenging question, and it isn’t because I have no answer. I do have answers to that question—I’m just not sure which one (or how many) to give. I can’t really sum it all up in one grand, over-arching theme. Apologies to those who might be frustrated with that.

So the following is a list of things I learned:

1. Before I took History of Christianity, I thought (like most evangelicals) of history in a very truncated way: What was important to me was up to maybe A.D. 100, and then from the Reformation period onward. But I ignored early church fathers such as Augustine (A.D. 354–430), a figure in church history who was well aware of his own depravity before God and loved to write about His grace. Some brilliant thinkers lived in the Middle Ages, such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas. I was still excited when we got to the Reformation, but I was surprised even then to learn things about the Reformation that I wouldn’t have known had I not filled in the gap of my knowledge of church history from A.D. 100 to A.D. 1500. Studying history is all about noting the interconnectedness of events. You cannot study the Reformation without the prior context of the Middle Ages.
2. Planning meals is not fun for me, but eating them is.
3. I struggle with “overview” courses. I like to closely analyze passages, but in overview courses, I’m required to look at things in a broad, general way. That’s not natural for me. (I still enjoyed the courses, though, and I learned a lot from them. I just liked my Greek course more than my other three courses.)
4. I met a lot of students from all around the world, all of whom were extremely friendly. I learned a few German, Portuguese, and Chinese words from the people I met.
5. I also learned how much I appreciate the United States of America. I also appreciate Canada, but being outside of my home country (even if it’s just across the border) for so long makes me miss it. Incidentally, one American student leader said the phrase “‘A’ to ‘Z’” in chapel last week, and the Canadian students playfully protested by saying, “No, it’s ‘A’ to ‘zed’!” (In Canada, the letter ‘Z’ is pronounced zed, not zee.) The American student responded by saying, “Hey, I’m not compromising, people! I’m proud to be an American!”

Ultimately, however, I learned about God’s sovereignty over the whole of life—whether it’s the Bible, the world itself, day-to-day living, or defining moments of history.

Recently at church, we heard the Christmas story in Matthew 1 again. In keeping with this theme of God’s sovereignty over all life, it’s fascinating to realize that when the angel appeared to Joseph, he addressed him as “son of David” (Matthew 1:20). This title is messianic in nature and is used almost exclusively of Jesus Himself (see, e.g., Matthew 1:1), but it’s interesting to note that the angel called Joseph “son of David” here (or that Matthew chose to include this interesting detail at all). Matthew had just finished giving the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph’s line, emphasizing that Jesus’ step-father was from the royal line of David. It was as if the angel was saying, “Joseph, this was the reason you were born—to be the earthly father of Jesus.”

There's a lot of comfort in that.