As a pastor, when each Advent approaches, I sometimes wonder how I could convey the story of the birth of Christ with some new insight - perhaps a way of looking at it that many have not heard before. I hope the “Greatest Story Ever Told” never becomes routine or boring. I don’t want it to become like Hallmark Christmas movies with most every plot and type of characters so repetitive that viewers tune out even if they haven’t seen it before. (Sorry, Hallmark.) I really have to check myself and make sure that I am not the one who is tuning out the story of Christmas because I’ve heard it and told it so many times before. I want to always be struck by the wonder of it all. I want to always be amazed by the miracle workings of God. I want to see and feel the story anew in my heart and mind and soul every time it is told. I want to again remember and be grateful for why God came to earth in the form of a precious, helpless babe who was born of a young virgin.
How does one become bored with the mystery and miracle of virgin birth so long ago? How can we think it is routine and stop trying to understand how God’s Word could become flesh and dwell among us? Words becoming human? It sounds crazy! When, in all of life, do we ever hear of such things when it isn’t fictional? Who, but Jesus, has had a star and angels announce their birth? A living person even though He died? A person who lives IN us? A person who is not just a person, but light? A person who is both genuinely human and divine at the same time? A person who died to pay the debt of sin for every single individual who would believe in Him? A Savior for the whole world who fulfilled a staggeringly improbable number of prophecies?
Yes. This is our Jesus! All of this and much more. Be amazed. Let it overwhelm you. Let it overcome you. Every morning of Advent, let this gift and miracle of God grip your heart tightly to prepare you for your day. Take a pause when you pass by a simple nativity. Read the story again. Tell it again.... with wide-eyed wonder because it is the only true story like it. This “Once upon a time” is the truth we live, in a world where truth has become relative.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (ESV)
by Rev. Delody d. Walden
Prayer
Eternal God, may we never tire of telling the story of how you loved us so much that you gave the world your only Son to pay our debt. Thank you for the gift of Jesus! This season, may we especially recall the miracle of how and why He came and retell the story every time we get the chance. It is in His powerful name that we pray. Amen.