A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Today, I’ve been particularly nostalgic. I’m remembering Christmas 1985 when I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first son, Nathan. What an exciting and wonderful, yet unnerving and unsettling December that was. We celebrated Jesus’ birth and, just four days later, the birth of our first son. That was when I truly learned firsthand that a baby truly does change everything!

A baby changes everything! Just ask any young couple when they bring that first “bundle of joy” home from the hospital. Finances change. Priorities change. Sleep patterns change. The vehicle they drive may change. And of course diapers are changed… and changed… and changed.

A friend of ours, already the parent of a teenager, said of an unexpected blessing, “You know you’re in trouble when you have to find your bifocals to read the pregnancy test.”

Of course there was one baby born, Jesus, who changed everything, everywhere, and every situation, for all time. When He was born, Mary and Joseph were the first and perhaps the most impacted. However, others were too. His birth had a ripple affect, touching even a group of star-gazers in a completely different part of the world. These magi saw a new star and somehow knew that the King of the Jews, and ultimately the King of All had been born. They were among the first to experience the incarnation.

The incarnate Lord, Immanuel, the “with us” of God, squeezed Himself into bodily form and came into the world as a tiny, fragile, squirming and squalling infant. His very purpose was to bring about change. As Mary laid Jesus in the manger in swaddling clothes, I wonder if she realized what a change agent he would be. And I wonder if we, ourselves, realize what a change agent He is when He births something new in us. This month as you celebrate Christmas, why not embrace the exciting and wonderful, yet sometimes unnerving and unsettling gift of change. Invite the born, resurrected, and living Lord to transform you for His sake and for the sake of His Kingdom?