A Savior in Bethlehem

The story found in the second chapter of Luke is one that does not grow old.  Every year we long to hear it again.  Christmas is not complete until we sit and listen to those words written so long ago.  Some people hear it in Christmas Eve worship and, indeed, such a setting somehow enriches those sacred words.  Others read it each year around the Christmas tree before any packages are opened.  Even as the Jewish community remembers their story of deliverance each Passover, so do we want to be sure our children know the story of the Christ coming into our world at Bethlehem.   

No matter how many years we have heard it read, there is always a sense of wonder and awe which comes over us as we listen.  We hear the story and catch glimpses of the journey to the City of David.  We hear the story and we look heavenward for the angels which showed up in the fields while shepherds watched their flock.  Finally, we hear the story with ears listening for the sound of a new born baby crying out its first sounds. For those who truly have hearts that are hungry, the words of the story are heard again and again as if for the first time.   

There was truly something holy and mysterious about that night long ago in Bethlehem.  How can our finite minds fathom the reality of God emptying Himself of all the glories of heaven for a moment of birthing midst the smell of hay and animal dung?  Who can put together the wooden cradle and the wooden cross which awaits the child of Bethlehem?  How can such a life and death as His set us free from the regrets of life lived wrong, the guilt of those choices, and the sin which seems like a heavy unbearable and impossible to remove weight upon our soul?   There is the story we read each Christmas and then there is the story of salvation, deliverance, and resurrection which is written between the lines.  A Savior was born that night long ago.  He is a Savior still needed by each and every one of us.