One would think it was bad enough that the couple entrusted
with the care of God’s Son were left hanging out to dry the night He was born,
their accommodations falling scandalously short even by human standards.
Not to mention angelic host…
Mary and Joseph didn’t hear the angels sing that
night. They only heard a report brought to them by astonished
shepherds. After that, life begun to settle into a semi-normalcy.
Feeding, diapers, burping, more sleepless nights. Ordinary couple with
'ordinary' baby doing all the ordinary things all ordinary parents do for their
children.
Then there was a knock on the door. When the strange
visitors saw the Child, they fell at the His feet
and worshiped Him. Can you imagine that? These
respectable, educated, foreigners traveled long distance – maybe
months, more like years– and now they were prostrated at a child’s feet? In
worship?!! They also brought some interesting presents – not a Tonka Truck or
Thomas the Train or even the latest LEGO DUPLO® set.
It turns out that the gifts were packed with meaning and value (for more
on this, check out What are
frankincense and myrrh? We all know gold, right?).
This is where most Christmas plays end. They lived happily
ever after. The end of Christmas.
After the wise men left, Joseph got a message about the
murder plot. They packed their belongings, got their family refuge visa and
left.
Soon after they arrived in Egypt they
heard the news from home. The unthinkable did happen.
The worst kind of genocide against innocent baby boys. Precious children
victims of the deranged king. There were screams. The wailing. The tiny
corpses. The entire communities wrapped in inconsolable mourning. Why?
Why? Why? Did
some of the shepherds who saw the angels lose their babies that night? Was
their Christmas Eve hope snuffed out by the thrust of the sword? By the
recurring nightmares of that horrible day being re-played on the screen of
their mind?
Often it is impossible to understand the mystery of evil God
allows in this world. When the tragedy knocks on our door, we gasp for answers…why,
why, why? We
feel abandoned by God…forsaken by the Lofty One too far removed to relate to
our human sorrows and heartbreak. But, God became human. He entered fully our
broken world, from the day He was born until the day He died. They tried to
kill Him before He was even a preschooler! And He grew up to be slandered,
misunderstood, persecuted, tempted (yet without sin), betrayed, treated
unjustly and finally crucified – dying a shameful, painful death of the worst
criminal. Oh, how we grieve His heart when we still think He doesn’t
understand… oh, how we inflict unnecessary pain on our own souls when we
still believe He can’t relate to our suffering
- yours and mine?
In all their afflictions He was afflicted…. Isaiah
63:9
He was …a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief… Isaiah
53:3
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over
for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ... Who
will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … But in all these things we overwhelmingly
conquer through Him who loved us. Romans 8:32-37
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