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Behold Your King

Christmas Day is almost upon us and it seems that every year we as Christians struggle to keep Christ at the center of our family traditions and celebrations.  We find ourselves pushing back against a world view that has determined to make Christmas just another day in a holiday season that stretches from Thanksgiving into the New Year.  So, how do we keep Christ in Christmas?  I would suggest that we use these last few days of Advent to reflect on this question: who was this babe born in a stable to a teenage girl named Mary some 2,000 years ago?  

From the beginning this was no ordinary birth and no ordinary child.  Luke's Gospel relates that the birth of Jesus was foretold by the angel Gabriel.  He declared to a virgin named Mary that the power of the Holy Spirit would conceive the child and "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."  All Israel had been waiting for this moment since their return from exile in Babylon some 500 years earlier.  It was an event prophesied 250 years before when Isaiah declared that a child would be born who would be called "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace", and that he would reign over David's throne and kingdom forever.  The arrival of a king in ancient times would be heralded by trumpets and a royal procession attended by the elites of the nation and crowds of cheering subjects.  In contrast, the birth of Jesus was revealed to shepherds, the lowest caste of Israelite, who were beckoned to see the coming King not in a palace in Jerusalem, but in a horse trough in a barn in Bethlehem.  The call to the shepherds came not through human design.  They witnessed the veil of heaven open and angelic messengers of God bringing the "Good News" that Messiah had come to free the world from the bondage of sin and evil.  These were not chubby babies with little wings from a Renaissance painting but powerful and awe inspiring heavenly host declaring "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 

As we ready ourselves to celebrate this Christmas Day, let's begin to envision our Nativity scenes as more than just an idyllic family gathering around a newborn child.  God has come to dwell with us.  We can and should celebrate with great joy the Advent of Jesus our King who has come to establish God's Kingdom of righteousness and restore God's good creation.  More than the blessings of "Merry Christmas" let us declare this Christmas to the world: "Behold Your King!"            

I Am His

The front room window reveals the season’s first snow and a breeze that makes an already cold day even colder. The microwave went out yesterday, a modern convenience my children don’t know how to live without, so I’m warming milk and boxed Chai on the stove top, in a pan. It’s slow and takes time.

 My son has a basketball game tonight, so dinner is in the crock pot. It will be warm and ready for us to eat after the game. I’ll notice it cooking all day and my children will smell it when the garage door goes up, announcing their arrival home from school. Reminds me of my coming home after Sunday church with the delicious aroma of pot roast, potatoes and carrots mysteriously seeping through the walls and doors before stepping foot in the kitchen. Dinner has been slowly cooking for hours and our empty bellies are happy knowing our hunger will be satisfied soon.

And this Advent season is slowing me to an intentional and graceful stop. I’m walking at a pace I don’t recognize, very little is occupying the space in my brain other than what my priorities are for the day, and there are only a handful. That is enough. 

It’s enough because my thoughts are finally and beautifully consumed with The Coming, the first and the last once -and -for -all coming of my King. I’ve had to fight my way to this place of contentment and awareness of who I am and have been created to be; a child of God. 

It’s a fight because all around me scream hundreds of good opportunities to be more, do more, reach for more, aspire to more, submit to more with empty promises that I will be better than I already am. And why have I looked to this in my not too distant past? Is it possible that the past forty years of whispering words of receiving Jesus’ gift, growing up in the shadow of stained glass windows and years of study, I drowned out the Word that says I am his?

 Although Christ’s gift has been claimed, learned and shown countless times to people all over the world, I still need to be reminded, I am His. He came for this woman, wife, mother, writer, baker, children’s taxi driver, reader, walker, coffee drinker, teacher, encourager, discipler – all things I do or qualities I possess.

But the only thing that matters is I am His. I am a child of God.