Monday, December 24, 2008

Today’s text

Luke 2:15-20

Now it happened that when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.' So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds said to them. As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as they had been told.

Reflection

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come to us who have no idea what it is that we find in you.

The shepherds went and found you. Did they adore you? Did they kneel and worship you? Did they stand, gaping, open-mouthed at the strange events happening along their normally quiet hillside?

We are not told. But certainly they had no depth of understanding of what was really happening. The dawn of a new time lay before them in the manger. Everything, even God, it seems, had changed.

No longer could the Holy Immensity be considered only as immeasurably grand, cosmic, transcending all comprehension. The inconceivable had occurred: God had become small, tiny as an ovum, dependent as an unborn child, helpless as a newborn.

The approach of God awakened no fear. Who fears an infant?

Yet in this child the incomparable immensity of the divine heart beat for all human kind, welcoming us to pick him up, rock him gently in our arms and hold him near, that the One who is Love might awaken the same in us.

It doesn’t say so in the Bible. But I like to think the Shepherds, at least one of them, picked you up and held you. That’s what I would have done. And every time I imagine this scene I see one of them holding you, rapt in joy by your infant face.

I know: They understood nothing about what was going on that they could really explain. They could only tell the story and give praise to God for the gifts of the evening, the extent of which far exceeded their thoughts.

But not their joy. They knew, and somehow believed, God had visited them. And we know that in this child you visit every hillside of this earth, with the peace of your great favor.

We don’t comprehend it much better than did those shepherds who first showed up at your infant bed. But that doesn’t matter. For we have found you, Lord Jesus, coming to us. And that is all we need, for this day, for this life, for forever.

May we, too, hold you to our hearts. Come, Lord Jesus, awaken in us the Love you are.

Then it is that Christmas shall come.

Pr. David L. Miller