Saturday, December 24, 2016
Luke 2:11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
UNTO YOU IS BORN ... A SAVIOR
After worshiping at the makeshift cradle of the newborn Savior the shepherds went back to their sheep. Back to leading them, feeding them, finding them water.
Back to the daily tasks of their every-day lives. They returned and, after another Christmas, so must we. Back to office and home, workplace and classroom ... life goes on day by day.
But can we return as the shepherds did, glorifying and praising God? That depends upon what we are doing when we gather "at the manger" -- and what we see in that manger.
Is this all just part of an annual ritual? Do we stuff the Christ-child back into the manger year after year, so that we can imagine that we were there and be strangely warmed by the tender scene?
Do we gather again simply to recall, reread and retell a simple historical event 2000 years past? May God grant otherwise. This day and what it means involves far more than memory and imagination.
Martin Luther said, "We come to Christmas with open hearts. We listen not just to history, but to a gift." Many of us will soon gather with family and open other gifts. We will sing again the carols and admire the tree. Let's be sure we take due time to consider what we've received that is really worth rejoicing over. There is only one such gift, one that we ought to rejoice over every day of the year.
The hymn writer well describes the tag on this greatest of gifts when he says:
Christ, from heaven to us descending. And in love our race befriending,
In our need His help extending. Saved us from the wily foe.
From the bondage that oppressed us, From sin's fetters that possessed us,
From the grief that sore distressed us, We the captives, now are free.
Like the shepherds, we can return to our daily lives rejoicing-- in Him. For the Christ-child did not just come to Mary and Joseph, or to shepherds and wise-men, or even just to a sin-stricken world in general. He came to us-- to you and me. And He continues to come to us in His Word. He rules in our hearts and lives.
God keeps his promises, and the words of the angel to the stunned shepherds rings out to us also from Christmas to Christmas:
"Fear not ... for unto YOU is born ... a Savior."
