An Unexpected ChristmasSample

Day 8: A Baby

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  (Isaiah 9:6)

For hundreds of years, God’s people had been waiting… waiting for the Messiah God had promised them… waiting for this Prince of Peace to enter the scene and make everything right. 

We can imagine what they were expecting: a warrior or maybe a king of some kind. Surely his arrival would be marked by royal fanfare, announcing to the world that things were about to change.

But there was no royal chariot, no warrior or king, no fanfare of any kind.

Instead, in the middle of a filthy barn, surrounded by donkeys and chickens, in the stillness of night, a baby was born. 

He was God’s own Son, and his name was Jesus. God had come to be with us, but not as anyone expected. 

In a culture that valued strength above all else, God came in weakness and vulnerability. He came to be with us, to be one of us. He came to show us what love looks like.

Because Jesus didn’t come the way they thought he would, some people missed him altogether. And, if we’re not careful, we could too. 

Let’s not be so devoted to our own ideas and expectations that we miss out. Let’s not allow the limits of our creativity and imaginations to become walls we use to put the Creator of the universe in a box. Instead, let’s open our hearts, minds, and hands to what God wants to do in and through us.