Only a few days until Christmas! Can you believe it?  Everyone's going in a million directions.  Hustle and bustle reigns supreme.  Such a sight reminds me of Bethlehem the week that God descended onto planet Earth amidst the hubbub, indeed, camouflaged in the skin of a newborn.

One of my favorite images of Christmas revolves around the night the Christ child was born.  Max Lucado portrayed the scene for me years ago where the characters in the Christmas story came to life.   I loved it!  So each holiday I ponder it once again.  I don't remember it exactly, but it went something like this:

King Augustus had given the economy of Bethlehem the greatest gift ever: a decree that a census should be taken bringing hundreds of people into the city, prospering the commerce of the village.  No doubt vendors were positioning themselves on the corner streets and shop owners were displaying their finest goods in the front windows.  Children were excited by the street's barking dogs and the donkeys entering their community pulling carts.

Even the homeowner of an inn experienced unprecedented prosperity.  Every bed was taken. Not a blanket or mat was left unused. Never had every inch of his business space been so cram packed with weary travelers, not to mention that his cash drawer was flowing over with enough currency to feed his family for months.

One's imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family the night the man and the pregnant lady on the donkey had asked for a room, only to be jammed in his stable on a filthy pallet.  Certainly, a more lowly place of birth could not exist for any human being, much less the Creator of the universe! Do you think at the dinner table the innkeeper's wife and children commented with curiosity about who they'd just housed in the stall amidst the stench of the urine, dung, and sheep?  Probably, not.  They were too busy.  The next day's bread had to be made and the morning chores had to be done.  There was too much to do than to imagine that the impossible had just occurred under their very roof.

But it's true.  God had, indeed, drawn near, not wearing a crown but a diaper.  He'd been given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys and a spleen.  He, too, had floated in the amniotic fluids of His mother before birth.  He came not as a flash of light or an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter.  Indeed, the hands that first held GOD HIMSELF were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty.

Then there were the shepherds.  They sat silently on the stable floor, perhaps perplexed, in awe, no doubt in amazement.  Their night watch had been interrupted by an outburst of heavenly light and a symphony of angels.  It's ever so true.  God goes to those who have time to hear Him; So, on that cloudless night, He revealed His big news to the simple shepherds.

And then there was Mary, wide awake, a young girl whose head rested on the soft leather of Joseph's saddle.  Her pain in childbirth had been eclipsed by wonder.  She looked into the face of her baby, her son, the LORD, pondering the words of the angel, "His Kingdom will never end." 

Imagine.  Majesty in the midst of the mundane.  Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat.  Divinity entering the world on a dirt floor.  A baby coming to life through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

And meanwhile, the city noises continued, the innkeeper oblivious that he'd just sent God out into the cold, the merchants totally unaware that the King of Kings, the One and only sovereign of God, the majestic glory, had just weaved Himself into their hectic schedules.

Friends, there might be a Christmas reminder here.  They were too busy, unconsciously trapped in their own life sagas to embrace the miracle that had just occurred.  And their problem?  They just weren't looking for Jesus to come.  I'm sure if they'd been still long enough, God would have given them a 'heads up' about the indescribable gift that was about to enter their atmosphere.  After all, He told the shepherds.

I suppose little has changed in the last two thousand years.  Jesus, the light of the world has come.  So be still.  Ponder.  What might God be telling you about His Son's birth?

I love you all, precious friends, and thank you for the opportunity you've given me all year to share the joy of Jesus through my email devos.  May you be blessed, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you a Christ-centered and joyous Christmas!

Lovin' you,

Pam

Enjoy Pam's blog: My Christmas Names for Jesus