Christmas!  What a time!  A season filled with family and friends, good food, football, and gifts.  Most of all, however, we (should) celebrate a birthday.  At the mention of the baby, the familiar nativity scene instantly comes to mind, with the animals around, the angel, and the shepherds and wise men, and of course Mary, Joseph, and the baby in a manger.  But is this picture truly representative of how it really was?

When I hear the name ‘Jesus’, I think of the man, the adult.  It is only during the Christmas season that I consider Him as an infant, and it is easy to not realize that the adult God-Man is also this baby and despite His infancy, He is still the creator of the universe.  If ever there were two opposing ideas smashed together, these have to be the most polar opposite.  Almighty God, who measures the universe with the span of His hand, who spoke the world into existence, and a baby, helpless, totally dependent upon a mother, incapable of anything.

On another note, have you ever been in a well used barn?  To say that it is dirty and smelly is a gross understatement.  Fill it full of animals, and the smell alone becomes almost unbearable.  What about this stable that Mary and Joseph were forced to use as a birthing room?  We are told that there was no room at the inn.  For travelers to be well-off financially to afford a room at an inn instead of camping or staying with family or friends would also indicate they would be of sufficient means to travel on animals such as donkeys or camels instead of walking.  And if the inn was full, I would suggest so was this stable.

The following is an excerpt from ‘Intimate Moments with the Savior’ by Ken Gire.  I forget who is reading, but it was broadcast on ‘Focus on the Family’.  This brings these ideas together and makes what we celebrate more real and less sterile than the nativity scene.  I make a point to listen to this each year so that I might be reminded of the true Christmas story.  I hope you enjoy.

Click here to download the audio clip.  (5MB)

We each have our little world that we live in.  Facebook has made me aware that our world is uniquely ours in many respects.  The circle of influence we have with our friends, our work environments and contacts, places we go, things we eat, and the various forms of entertainment we all enjoy are all uniquely ours.  Even if we are married to another, and despite how close that relationship is, our world is still uniquely individualistic.

This world of ours is something that is developed.  When we are born, our world exists pretty much of our mother, in whatever we happen to be sleeping at any given time, and little else.  As we grow, this world is gradually expanded.  I think that is why I love two-year-olds.  They are discovering their surroundings and everything is amazing to them.  What a wonderful time of discovery!  And so it continues….we start going to school, make friends, start driving, leave home, etc. etc. etc.  Our world continues to expand and grow and for some, the entire globe becomes their playground.  For most of us, however, our world never becomes quite that large despite all our work and efforts.

For some, this growth stops abruptly.  A short illness or an accident and -poof- they are gone.  We all know someone whose world ended this way.  This may be how some of us come to our end.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed nor is even the next hour.  But for most of us, our world will inevitably start shrinking just as it had started growing.  We will stop traveling as much and instead stay home more.  Then, we’ll stop going out as much and staying indoors almost entirely.  Sickness assuredly comes and ultimately our world is reduced to a bed in a room, very similar to how it had started.

Regardless of the speed with which it comes, be it in the blink of an eye in an accident or long and languishing fighting some disease, death does come.  We all have that standing before us and there is nothing that can take it away.  It has been called the ultimate statistic – 100 of 100 die.  It is here that our conscience tells us this is not the end, however.  We know that there is more to us than flesh and bone.  We have a soul, and this soul does not die with the last breath.  We know this inherently and it is self evident.  But what happens next…what happens to the soul?

Turning again to the conscience, we know right from wrong and we know when we do wrong.  Couple this with our sense of justice, and we arrive at what the Bible tells us – each man is to die and then judgment.  We will stand before almighty God and answer for every word, thought and deed, and we must pay the fine due for each transgression which the Bible tells us is hell, God’s prison, for eternity (the soul is eternal, so there’s no other option).  Unless…… Unless the fine has already been paid……paid by another……YES!! It is the cross!  Jesus paid the fine!  His work credited to our account!  So are we good to go?  Are our consciences cleared?  No.  For the atoning work of Jesus to be applied to you, you must repent, confessing your sins and turning away from them and toward God with a humble heart, and you must put your faith in Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.

We don’t know how our world is going to develop and take shape over the coming months and years, or if it even will for that matter.  And all the working and striving for a bigger, better house, a newer car, more money, and nicer clothes will ultimately be reduced to a mere bed.  All of it will be snatched from you, perhaps quickly or perhaps over time. Regardless, when it ends, and it will, all the stuff will not be there nor will it matter.  But one thing is certain.  It will be a fearful thing to do so without Jesus.  Is He your focus and purpose, or is it your world?