The 12 Days of ChristmasSýnishorn

 “When You Retire, Can I Have Your House?”

Age 12: Mom, I think I want an RV. Teen: Can I take a two-week class at Cambridge? It’s only $6,000 + airfare. Age 5: Can I have a copy machine in my bedroom and get automatic doors like at the grocery store—plus a doorbell on my camping tent so bears will ring the doorbell? Teen: When you retire, can I have your house? Age 6: Can we take a Royal Caribbean cruise for my birthday? Age 2:  Mama, I ne-e-e-e-d a rocket. A real one. Age 7: I need a golf cart. Walking’s too hard. 

These requests came from my friends’ children. And those friends and I agreed that “audacious” accurately describes their ideas. So, imagine if one of the above mentioned kids said, “Dad, I want to possess all the people on earth!”

We might laugh. Or cringe. No human owns the earth, and people aren’t ours to “give.” Yet the Father invited His Son to ask for that very thing. And the implication is that the Son should not only ask—but expect to get it: “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps. 2:8). 

For God to promise the world to His Son and for the Son to also inherit the nations, both Father and Son must have universal dominion. And indeed they do. John the elder describes what loud voices in heaven will proclaim when the Son comes into His inheritance: “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15) 

This is the promised legacy of the baby to whom was given gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

O worship the King! 

Photo credit: Isaac Garcia, Unsplash; used with permission.