There's something very
special about having a new baby in the family at Christmastime - since
it's really all about a baby. Having children in your house at Christmas
in many ways IS CHRISTMAS.
Remember what it's like having a baby around at Christmas? They actually
don't do much celebrating - they really didn't do much of anything except
lie there and look irresistible. Now, in my head, I know that babies are
helpless, but being around one for a little while really brings that home.
Our little darlings couldn't eat unless Mommy fed them. They couldn't burp
unless someone burped her (that's something that some of us grew up and
learned to be quite good at). Our babies couldn't move unless someone
moved them; their little hands sort of flailed around - absolutely no
ability to control what they did. Helpless.
Now try to get your mind around this: the helpless hands of that little
Jewish baby Mary was holding in the manger were the hands that created the
galaxies! The Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead, the One of
whom the Bible says, "Through Him all things were made" (John 1:3). He
comes to our planet in a helpless little package that basically can do
nothing for Himself. Omnipotence becomes helpless to rescue a world full
of dying people. As one song says, "What a strange way to save the world."
Get used to it. It seems to be God's favorite modus operandi. And this
radical victory plan - use the weak to do amazing things - can be both an
encouragement to you and an explanation for some of your recent struggles.
Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God to see the story of
that first Christmas from heaven's viewpoint. Philippians 2, beginning
with verse 5, tells us that our attitude "should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus."
God goes on to explain that, though Jesus was "in very nature God," He
"made Himself nothing" - now picture that helpless, little infant in a
cattle stall - "taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness...He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on
a cross!" The great plan of God to redeem our world starts with Jesus as a
helpless baby in a cattle stall and culminates with Him nailed to a
criminal's cross. But Colossians 2:15 announces the crushing triumph won
by that "weakness" - it says Jesus disarmed the princes of hell and "made
a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross!" And
Michael Card says, "His most awesome work was done through the frailty of
His Son!" God loves to win through weakness. Then it's a whole lot of God,
and hardly any of us.
That's why He chooses unlikely candidates and does mighty things through
them - which means your inadequacy and ordinariness may be exactly what
qualifies you to be a spiritual hero. According to Jesus, who is it that
will "inherit the earth?" The mighty? No - the meek (Matthew 5:3). And
about the struggles you've been going through recently. God will do
whatever it takes to help us realize our weakness - to break our death
grip on the steering wheel and to finally let Him drive - to break that
stubborn pride of ours, the self-reliance, our need to control. All so we
can finally surrender and let His strength come flooding in. Maybe the
battles you've been going through have been to take you beyond yourself
and beyond things you can fix, you can solve, or you can figure out - so
you'll get out of the way and let God do what only He can do.
A baby wrapped in rags - a bloodied man, hanging on a cross. Vivid
pictures of God's radical plan for victory - winning through weakness so
everyone will know that the Lord is God! Always worth celebrating...become
a kid with us and celebrate all over again during this Advent and
Christmas Season.
See You in Church Merrying Christmas-ing it up
Rev. Chuck
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