Think back over the past year. As you perused Facebook or checked your Instagram account, how many infants, newly born to family members and friends, have brought a smile to your face? One? Ten? More?
Did you know that on average 175 children enter our world every minute? That’s over 250,000 births per day! Just think of all the smiles all those births bring. It’s the miracle of life, new life!
Today, we want to focus on the birth of one particular infant - the Baby born to bring us new life! Today we want to join with people from all over the world in rejoicing at the Good News that Christ the Savior - our Savior - is born.
When you think about it, it’s quite a birth announcement: Christ the Savior is born! This news didn’t arrive via social media. It did not include a perfect picture of a perfect baby lying on a soft blanket in some state-of-the-art birthing center.
No, this Baby lay on a bed of hay in a rough-hewn stable. This Baby left heaven to subject himself to a world of sin, to share our suffering, to end once and for all the consequences of our rebellion against our heavenly Father. News of his birth wasn’t posted on Facebook; rather, we read about it in the Book of faith, God’s true, inspired Word, the Bible:
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11 KJV).
I once read a story about a group of people who ordered an expensive, life-size nativity to display outside their church at Christmastime. When it arrived, they unpacked the figures. They were surprised to discover that the Baby Jesus figure was separate, not attached to the manger as they had expected. Immediately they became fearful that someone would steal the baby. So they bolted and chained Jesus to his manger!
These people meant well. They had invested a lot of time, money, and effort in their nativity display. Naturally, they wanted to make sure Jesus didn’t go anywhere. But that’s not how it really was with Jesus.
Our Savior left the glories and safety of a perfect heaven to invest his life in saving the world from sin and eternal death. He made the commitment to do that before time itself began. His love for sinful human beings goes all the way back to Eden, to a couple named Adam and Eve. When sin walked through the front door of their perfect home and led them out the back door, the Lord was waiting for them there.
Genesis 3:15 tells us that their sin made it necessary for them to leave paradise. But even in the darkness of that day they heard, ever so faintly, the announcement that the shepherds would hear on Christmas night: Christ the Savior is born! A Savior would come. All wrongs would be made right.
Despite the fact they deserved no mercy, only punishment, the Creator-God told Adam and Eve about a Son who would one day be born to crush the power of Satan. They heard the promise - ever so softly - Christ, the Savior would come. Hold on to the promise. Hang your faith on the hope, Adam and Eve:
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11 KJV).
God’s faithful people did just that, generation after generation. They hung their hopes on the promise God had made, his promise to send a Savior who would remove sin and cancel its consequences.
Finally, it happened. It happened in the most unusual of places - in the back streets of the little town of Bethlehem, in a place built to shelter animals. Mary and Joseph made room in the manger that stood nearby. They placed the newborn there, in his first bed, in a feeding trough designed for beasts of the field, not the best of heaven. And the God who had whispered his promise into Adam’s and Eve’s ears now nudged the angels to shout it from the skies - Christ the Savior is born!
Full and free forgiveness, hope that keeps us going day by day, a place in heaven, an abundant life now that not even death can destroy - all this comes to us through a Child who wasn’t bolted to his manger, a Child who left that manger to live and die and rise again for you and for me.
The people who bought the nativity set for their church were afraid someone would take Jesus. They were mistaken. You see, Jesus wasn’t meant to stay in the manger, on a cross, or in a grave. He lives! And actually, Jesus wants us to take him! To take him home. To take him with us as we celebrate Christmas. To take him to work, to school, to the grocery store.
And after the calendar says this holy season is over, he doesn’t want us to pack him away until next Christmas! He wants us to keep him in our hearts and lives every day in the New Year ahead. He wants us to share him with those around us who need his love. Rejoice in him! And share the good news!
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11 KJV).
Editor’s note: Today’s devotion comes from one of CTA’s new Christmas themes, Christ the Savior Is the Born! This theme includes everything you need to celebrate Christmas with the adults and children in your ministry. Check out the Count-Up-to-Christmas Activity, lapel pin, personalized Christmas ornament, and much more!
You are welcome to copy this article for one-time use when you include this credit line and receive no monetary benefit from it: © 2018 CTA, Inc. Used with permission.
