When God was Born

This past week I watched one of our favorite Christmas movies with my daughter, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

If you’ve ever seen it, then you know it’s a great movie. I’m still trying to convince Ella Grace to let me try & do her hair like Cindy Lou Who. So far, she’s not going for it.

What’s so inspiring to me about the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is that more than one heart is changed. You hope for & almost expect the heart of the Grinch to be changed before the movie is over. And it is. But what’s inspiring is how the people of Whoville experience a change in their hearts as well. They experience a change of heart because of the courage of Cindy Lu Who who was unwilling to give up on the Grinch.

As the story goes, the Grinch comes after Santa on Christmas night & steals all the Christmas presents. And maybe my favorite quote of the movie comes when he is sitting high on his mountain atop Whoville, thinking he has successfully ruined Christmas for everyone, when he hears singing from the town below. And then he thinks to himself…

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.”
“Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”

Something More…

It’s that time of year, isn’t it, when all of us start wondering… Maybe Christmas means a little bit more. Maybe it’s about something more.

We get so caught up, I know we do, with the presents, the gifts, the money, the wants & wish lists… it’s hard to remember what this whole thing is really about. But it is about something more. There’s a reason we celebrate this time of year. There’s a reason we give gifts. In our family, we tell our kids that we give these gifts because they remind us of the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. The greatest gift we’ve ever received. A gift that was given sacrificially & with great cost.

That gift? Jesus.

Luke 2.1-7
At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child.

6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.

Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of Joseph & Mary. They’re a young couple. About to have their first child. Not too many days before they were preparing their home. They had surely made arrangements & made room for this baby to be born. But then they learned they would have to put the preparations on hold & make this trip to Bethlehem. It’s not ideal but it’s what they have to do. And now there here. And this just simply is not how things were supposed to go. Yet, through less than ideal circumstances, God enters history.

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Here in the beginning of the story of how Jesus came into the world we learn this powerful truth, if your circumstances seem less than ideal, look for Christ to come & enter in. If you’re willing to make room in your life for Christ, He will come. Our God loves to enter less than ideal circumstances.

Maybe there’s hope in this part of the story for you today.

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So Luke says…

7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

For Luke, the emphasis here is on the fact that Jesus, that God, was born! That God would be born, that God would choose to grow, have to learn to walk, have to learn to talk, have to be fed, to experience human weakness & vulnerability & one day… to die, for Luke this was an important affirmation. Jesus wasn’t part human, part God. He was fully human & fully God at the same time. And part of being fully human was that the infinite God came & was contained in a finite body. That the God who knew no bounds came & was bound by skin & bone the size of a child! Luke is captivated by this idea, by the love of God displayed in the humility of a child & the lowliness of His birth. Luke sees this as the ultimate gift.

When Jesus was born…

Peace came into the world.

The sick were healed

The hungry were fed.

The dead were raised.

Grace became tangible.

Faith became sight.

Mercy became touchable.

Forgiveness became watchable.

Healing became possible.

Love became understandable.

Light became discernible.

Wrongs became reversible.

Right became relatable.

Hope became possible.

The cross became a beacon.

Death became defeated.

The grave became empty.

Life became eternal.

Because God became a man.

That’s what happened when Jesus was born.

But that’s only half the story.

When Jesus came something changed, something had to change. God can’t come from Heaven to earth & everything be the same as it was before. Sometimes I think we live like nothing has changed. Sometimes I think we worship like nothing has changed. But when Jesus came, when God arrived on planet earth in the person of Jesus, something changed. And want I want to suggest is that something is YOU.

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Because Christ was born so you could be born again. Christ came so He could come in you. When Jesus entered the world he did so because He wanted to enter into your world. And He didn’t enter the world & He doesn’t enter your world to be a fixer. I know you pray to him when you’re in trouble. I know you call on Him when you need him most. Keep doing that. But Jesus isn’t a fixer. You need to know that. Jesus is a Redeemer. He is a Restorer. He makes all things right & all things new. He’s not your Heavenly handyman. He came & He comes to make things the way they were always supposed to be.

When Christ comes in you your relationship is different. Because Christ has been born in you. You’ve been born again. In fact, you’ve stepped into the waters of baptism & you have been buried with Christ & raised to new life. The Holy Spirit, & this is a holy mystery, has taken up residence in you.

And this is what happens when Christ comes in you.

When Christ is born in you, when Christ comes into your life…

Love becomes your first response.

Joy becomes your default demeanor.

Peace becomes your presence.

Kindness becomes your condition.

Goodness becomes your nature,

Faithfulness forms your relationships.

Gentleness becomes your approach.

Self-control becomes your friend.

Because Jesus becomes your Lord.

… the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5.22-23

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Has Christ come in you? If you were to ask you spouse, or your kids, your coworkers, a friend to describe you… would they say anything remotely close to this list?

When Christ came to Mary everything changed for her. Has anything changed for you?

Here’s what I know is true, God still comes & God still enters into our less than ideal situations. The incarnation of Christ continues. It continues in you. There’s a reason we call it being born again. When you are born again Christ is born in you. You receive His Holy Spirit. It’s Christ in you. It’s a great mystery. And if we believe what we say we believe, it changes everything.