Will you pray with me?
Dear Lord, Precious Baby—
We welcome you again into our lives, as fresh and pure as you were on the day of your arrival so long ago. Again we thank your Father and Our Father for blessing us with your presence in our family, and for being a constant reminder to us that we are all members of YOUR family and are children of the selfsame Father. We are all children of God. To Him and to You we offer all glory, blessings, and Happy Birthday wishes.
Amen.
Now What?
When we brought our first child home from the hospital after his birth in 1973, my wife and I took turns holding him as we sat on the sofa in our living room. We passed him back and forth for a while, and then I remember saying, “OK. Now what do we do?” I don’t recall that either of us had an answer to that question at that time.
Today we celebrate the birth of another Child. What do WE do with such a gift? What do we do with such a miracle?
When our first grandchild, Tommy, was born a little over six years ago, JoAnn and I celebrated with the other grandparents. There were (and are) seven of us, most from divorced and re-married pairings. We celebrated and united around our grandchild, and, for a while at least, events in our lives B.T. (Before Tommy) became bygones. This was ALSO a miracle of birth –a different miracle. We were a family – a NEW family.
It’s all about the baby. …It’s all about the BABY.
Now what do we do?
This Christmas gift is not like a bottle of perfume or an Argyle sweater. It can’t be returned tomorrow morning and exchanged for something else. It won’t stop working when the batteries are drained – It doesn’t NEED batteries.
This is a moment (after the glory of last night’s splendid celebration of the Savior’s birth) to really think about …What do we do now? In the clear light of Christmas morning, warmed by a good Christmas breakfast, with wrapping paper scraps and empty coffee cups all around us, in the aftermath of a commercial tsunami that began before Halloween (!), …What do we do NOW?
I believe that right now is a time to pause before we return to our homes, to the meal preparations, to visits with families and friends. This is a time to pause…. Matthew and Luke describe the birth of Jesus then skip immediately to later events in Jesus’ life. Mark and John don’t describe the birth of Jesus at all. But what is the hurry? What is the hurry to let go of the glory of this event and to get on with our lives? The Son of God is born and has come into our lives, and we will never be the same! Can’t we do honor to this miracle? Can’t we take a little time and consider the marvelous mystery of it all? Can’t we be warmed and dazzled by the Light that now shines on us?
Since we have invested so much time and money in the preparation for this birth, shouldn’t we take at least a little time this morning to consider what this birth means to us? What this Child means to us? What do we do now? …Can’t we just pause and feel the wonder? …Can’t we give the Baby a few quiet moments of awesome wonder?
Unlike other children, this Child won’t spike a fever late at night and send us rushing to the pediatrician or the hospital; he won’t wreck his knee skateboarding; he won’t want to borrow the car; he won’t want to borrow money; all he’ll want is for us to love him, and to let him love us. That’s all he wants. ALL he’ll want is for us to love him, and to let him love us. That’s all he wants. Think about that.
In my mind, that’s what Christianity comes down to. ALL that it asks of us is to love God…love Jesus…and God and Jesus will love us. They will love us even if we don’t love them! (What kind of deal is that?)
And if we accept this love, and if we return this love, we will receive the most amazing Christmas gift we can imagine – something even better than a new silver Lexus with a red bow on top, sitting in the brick-paved parking area in front of our mansion’s four-car garage.
We will receive salvation; we will receive unmerited forgiveness when we screw up; we will receive grace. Amazing grace. Grace greater than our sin, as the hymn says. God will give us eternal life.
Merry Christmas.
Amen.
