"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas. . . perhaps. . . means a 'little' bit more."
~ Dr. Suess - How the Grinch Stole Christmas
We forget.We go crazy at Christmastime with light displays and decorating, planning and partying, gifts and gaiety, crafts and cuisine, even blog carnivals. And the shopping. . . oh my!
Oh sure, we do our best to put the focus on
“The Real Reason. . .”
But . . . we forget.We pause - *sigh* - when we hear the news of yet another school district banning the sacred music of the Season. Our hearts sink deeper every year as we witness the culture's sinister attacks on this Season of our Saviour's Birth.
Yet. . . we still forget.We are occupied with
Bethlehem when we should be focused on
Gethsemane.
Is it possible to get too caught up in the “story” of Jesus’ birth? Do people take the baby Jesus thing too far? People seem to revel in the “tender” side of God’s nature, putting aside thoughts of sin and righteousness.
We dress up children in costumes and sing angelic-sounding songs. It’s almost too much to resist. Don’t misunderstand me. This aspect of Jesus’ story is important, even vital to understanding the Messiah. But the biblical focus on Jesus is
not on His birth.
The real focus is some thirty years later, at an execution scene. There was no tender moment at that place. The air was, instead, ripe with evil.
The baby of the manger was murdered.Birth did bring God’s Son into the world and give Him a body like you and like me. But this miraculous Birth is just one small piece of a much greater and grander story -- a story that ties Genesis to Revelation -- a story that spans generations and centuries -- a story which continues right up to this very second. It's the story of Redemption!
“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”
~ John 1:14
Why did God choose to send a child? Why didn’t Jesus just come to earth as a fully-grown adult? In fitting with the whole of Scripture and the entire plan of Redemption, the idea was that Jesus be involved in human relationships. Jesus needed to know what it’s like to be human. And he does.
While on earth, Jesus was hurt. He cried. He was hungry. He was angry. He was happy. He grew. And like us, He experienced human limitations. He bled. He got hungry. He needed sleep. And it’s probably safe to assume that, just as any other precious infant, the human part of baby Jesus needed constant care. As a toddler, He needed discipline; and as a child, direction. God used those formative years to prepare Jesus for His ministry and ultimately for death on a cross.
Let’s get caught up in the Baby Jesus "story" for a minute, shall we?
Imagine you had been walking down a city street or sitting in a coffee shop in Bethlehem that evening and overheard someone say something about a King being in town?
If someone had told you, “Follow this street to the alleyway behind
Starbuck's and you’ll find Him in a manger,” wouldn’t you have hurried along toward that alley?
I wonder how many of us upon arriving at the manger, with disappointment in our hearts, would say,
“But it’s only a child,” and walk away -- frustrated that we'd left our gourmet coffee behind for nothing.
Scripture does tell us that people were expecting the Savior to be a warrior. They were hoping for someone who would overtake the oppressive leaders of the time and they believed God would do it the way any man would… by force.
How many people do you suppose breathed sighs of despair when they saw that God had instead sent . . . a child?
As mothers, that’s hard to think about. Our children are the world to us and we’d do anything for them. Most of us have sacrificed much to care for them, discipline them, direct them and form them into adults.
But the child stage is so momentary. Children are like . . . plaster! I was working with plaster a few days ago. While fresh and wet, it can be shaped into almost anything. Over time
(actually about 15 minutes), the plaster hardens, and shaping is much more
difficult impossible
.We all have a part in shaping the plaster of the children in our lives. Their little hearts and minds are so pliable. We can teach them good or evil. We can teach them selfishness or compassion.
Do you believe God was doing the same thing with His own Son? I do. God brought Jesus into this world as a child so He could shape Jesus into the man He wanted His son to become.
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
~Luke 2:52
Jesus needed to grow in favor with God because the human part of Him had to be shaped into the character God had planned. That reality should help us realize just how crucial it is that we use our time wisely when it comes to our children and grandchildren. If God realized the importance of shaping His own child’s “plaster,” how can we do any different with our children?
Over the next weeks, many of us will be scouring crowded
stores looking for the perfect toys and clothes and gadgets and . . . stuff. We will envision the excitement on our children’s and grandchildren’s faces as they open their gifts.
But we forget. . .
Beyond what we find in the stores, let's spend some time thinking about what’s going on inside their hearts – how their “plaster” is being shaped. Let’s remember a powerful yet often overlooked verse in The Book of Psalm:
"Children are a gift from God…”
~ Psalm 127:3
Let’s never get to that point where -- as some did some two thousand years ago -- we say, “But, it’s only a child." Jesus came as a tiny, precious baby --Yes! But God’s plan for Him was far more remarkable.
. . . He just needed his plaster shaped before HE GAVE HIS LIFE.
Maybe Christmas. . . perhaps
. . . means a 'little' bit more." ~ Esthermay Bentley-Goossen
2008 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife
The article also submitted for publication to
Wesleyan Publishing House, Indianapolis, IN
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"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."
