- Morning Devotional
- December 25,
2005
"Merry Christmas, 2005"
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That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior--yes, the Messiah, the Lord--has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!" Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors." When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Come on, let's go to Bethlehem! Let's see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." (Luke 2:8-15 NLT).
In the little town of Bethlehem, the most important birth in all of human history took place on what we now consider the first Christmas. It was sparsely attended by some bleating farm animals and a handful of shepherds who wouldn’t have been there had not the sky lit up with a multitude of heavenly hosts only minutes before, praising God and inviting the shepherds to the stable. What an invitation! With the exception of that outburst, however, no one else knew. Oh yes, there were some astrologers from the east that figured out what was going on by studying the stars and some ancient manuscripts, but they didn’t make it to town until at least a year or two later when the baby was a child.
Why such an uneventful welcome for such an auspicious event? It’s God’s way. He’s always been quiet about His work on earth. He’s even pretty quiet about the way He works in our lives. Silently He came into the world; silently He comes into our hearts. No fanfare. No welcoming committee. God has never been into self-promotion. He lets His work speak for itself. And that would be you and me. Believers are the result of Christ’s coming. It is all about good news and glad tidings for all people. A Savior has been born and He has been born for us.
It occurs to me there are two ways to take all the fanfare and glitter of this season. We can see it as the over-commercialism of Christmas, or we can take all the lights, and gifts, and decorations, and parties, and bells, and carols, and Christmas specials on TV—even Santa and reindeer in the front yard—and bank them all as celebrations of the birth of Christ. We can even take the conversion of old Scrooge as the joy of new life and forgiveness of sins. There’s no law against sanctifying the secularization of Christmas in your own heart and mind. It’s what we make of these things that count, anyway. Every single light can represent another soul secured in eternity as the result of what Christ has accomplished. There was no room available for the Son of God when He came the first time. Let’s make sure there’s room in our hearts this Christmas, and don’t let anyone take away what is good about the glad tidings of Christ’s birth!
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