Despite a cultural bias that would say otherwise, the traditions and celebrations that have coalesced around the observance of the birth of Christ are not universal. While the Scriptures promise a day when the entire world will have heard that Jesus is Lord, that day has not yet arrived. There are still huge portions of the world where the Lordship of Christ is unknown as is his location at a place of honor at the right hand of the Father on the throne of the King of Kings.
That reality, while it should inspire and invigorate our efforts in evangelism, should also remind us of a hidden blessing in the Christmas story that makes Christmas a blessing each and every day.
The announcement, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” wasn’t emblazoned on billboards or silk screened on the posteriors of sweat pants. It wasn’t texted or You Tubed virally to a restless and bored public looking for the next 2.7 minute sensation. While not unexpected in that it was foretold in the Scriptures, it was announced first to shepherds watching over their flocks on third shift! They likely didn’t know about those scriptures telling of the coming of the Messiah. But they were the ones who got the first message.
They ran to see if the announcement was so. It was. Little else, other than stories which no doubt found a place in the folklore of the shepherd community, seems to have come of the announcment that all of the ills assailing humanity, before and after that moment, were being addressed by a loving God. Talk about killing a hot news story …
A couple of years later, Magi arrived having followed a star which announced the birth of the Christ child to the rest of the world if they took the time to pay attention. That, of course, was followed by the news story of the decade, the massacre of the innocents by Herod, designed to keep the throne in his hands or at least in the hands of the man which Herod chose.
After that, more than 30 years pass with little press or fanfare. Not that the story wasn’t true. Not that it wasn’t developing according to plan. It was just developing outside of and apart from human attention, awareness or participation. It is, after all, God’s plan.
After Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection; after The Way began to get a bit of local traction in Jerusalem; after the local religious authorities cracked down on it and a persecution began – only then did the story which was announced to shepherds begin to spread to merchants and artisans and farmers and politicians and the rest of humanity.
The point here is that when God does things, while they are always big things, He rarely follows the conventional wisdom of “Go big or go home!” when it comes to publicizing what He does. He doesn’t upset the applecart of human history and existence. He drops a small pebble into that pond and the ripples spread, slowly and surely until they have touched every life.
The day Jesus was born, the day the Salvation of Israel and the rest of humanity made its entrance into history was unremarkable for 99.9999999999% of the world. The hearts and minds of men were consumed with the myriad of details of life and living. Bills, taxes, weddings, food on the table, a roof overhead and clothes on backs. Even those who did hear the announcement either couldn’t or didn’t make it front page news.
Yet the events of that day grew and swelled and today, they impact a huge portion of the world’s population and promise to oneday make that impact universal. Given the results over the last 2,000 years, I’m betting on the fullfilment of that promise. But there is more to the story.
If the Lord of the Universe introduced and developed His greatest gift to men in this fashion, why would we believe lesser gifts would be any different? I do not believe they are. I believe that all of His gifts are given in this fashion. There is little fanfare, little overt announcement, little publicity. Yet the reality and presence of these gifts is as real as the Child from a manger who grew to be a carpenter and who laid down His life as a Savior. We just need to look harder, pay closer attention and consider in a different light the things that happen around us.
In the midst of our own identical concerns over bills, taxes, kids and life in general – there are more gifts from a loving God that are introduced today if we will take the time to listen for the announcements and even more gifts that have been introduced in days gone by that have been quietly developing and which are similarly discoverable if we take the time to look.
The message of Christmas is that God Himself is intimately involved with each of our lives. He has plans – past, present and future – that He is putting in place to bless each of us. This is true whether we are aware of them or not. He has done His part. It falls to us to investigate and seek them out. It is our job to discover them and make them known.
If we are not aware of them, it’s not because they don’t exist. It’s because we have not set aside the time to look, study and investigate. The good news is that when we do, we find these gifts He left behind. Christmas presents if you will. We can have Christmas every day! Because it was a day just like today, a day unremarkable in any way you care to measure, that the Savior entered history.
That is the pattern. Any day and every day is Christmas.
Merry Christmas!!
As always you say things that make you think. As I have said before and will again, you have the most amazing way to communicate. Thank you for improving my day and making me smile to myself. may you have a blessed day.