Thoughts on the invitation of Christmas
In the story of Christmas, we have what is called by many “The Incarnation.” The son of God is born through a miracle of the Holy Spirit and a young woman named Mary. This child named Jesus was born “to save his people from their sins.” This is a promise made by God long before. One of the most interesting things about it is the invitation to other participants who did not really have to be there for the Incarnation to take place — wise men who discovered in reading prophetic words that a Messiah would come to Bethlehem one day and had been searching and waiting for generations and then the shepherds who were shocked out of their sandals by angels who invited them to the most important moment in history. Their invitation is our invitation, whether we discover Christ is Lord by the words of angels or prophetic words such as the Bible records. It only matters that we accept the invitation and show up at Christmas. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow . . . and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Christmas is made real only on the knees of those who bow before this Lord.
There is a true story told of a man named Tim Smith. But you might not know the entire story. Tim was raised by a man named Horace Smith. When Tim Smith was 11 he found a box under his mother’s bed with his birth certificate in it, a certificate signed by Tug McGraw. He knew the name immediately because he had Tug’s baseball card taped to his bedroom wall, for Tug was a famous baseball pitcher. He discovered that this man was his real father. A quick look in a box slid under a bed changed Tim Smith’s life as well as his name. Today he is Tim McGraw, married to Faith Hill, and is one of the most popular country singers in America and played a lead role in the movie The Blind Side. What a shame if he just slid the box back under the bed without looking inside.
I hope you will take a deep look inside of Christmas. When I do, it changes how I experience this life-changing season. It is not a season we pull out from under the bed after Thanksgiving and then slide back on New Year’s Day; it’s a joyful reminder of what it means to bow before God who sent us such an “Amazing Grace” Savior. Christmas is a special holiday, all the pieces from the secular to the sacred, the tree to the candlelight services. But Christmas is also as simple as a knee bent on a stable floor before a small child who would one day save us all from our sins.
Merry Christmas!
Category: Weekly Thoughts
