Friday, December 24, 2004
Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
UNTO YOU
If I have a few minutes in the evening, I often enjoy browsing through the daily newspaper. Every now and then I glance at the public notices. Part of that section includes the birth announcements. The hospitals report who was born and when. A person can find out how big the baby was and who the parents are. But as joyful and momentous as the birth of a child is to a couple, I actually don't find myself spending a lot of time looking at those announcements in the paper. After all, it wasn't my baby that was born.
How different it was the day my wife and I brought our daughter home from the hospital! That day I ran out and bought extra copies of the paper. That day the birth announcements really meant something to me because I could look there and see my own child, and I was thrilled with the gift God had given to us. All of a sudden those few lines of print on page 7D were very special to me-- because the baby was mine.
If the angels had come to the shepherds on Christmas Eve and said simply, "A baby is born in Bethlehem," do you think the shepherds would have left their sheep and gone into town? I think not. What would they have cared? They might have thought about the joy of the new parents for a moment, but if it wasn't their baby, how easily they might have forgotten.
Two little words made all the difference to them that night-- "Unto you." With those words the angels announced to the shepherds not only that a baby had been born, but that this child belonged to them! Now they couldn't wait to see their own flesh and blood, their own relative, their own son!
Those two words make all the difference for you too. Now you can see clearly that God has done this great thing for you. He has given you a Baby. Jesus is your child. He was sent into the world for you and because of you; sent to save you from your sins. "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." Hear the birth announcement-- and go see your new Baby Brother! 