+DEV+ The Baby: Jesus Christ

Date: December 22, 2011 10:26 PM
Topic: +DEV+ The Baby: Jesus Christ

The Baby: Jesus Christ

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world" (John 16:21).
Scripture Focus: John 16:17-14

Is there anything sweeter or more captivating than a newborn? This is how our Lord began . . . exactly as we did, save for sin. He had our same soft baby skin, silky hair, cries of hunger, soiled diapers. But He was Immanuel, God with us. His parents must have been won over by His infant charms while marveling at His arrival.

God could have come to earth as an angel. But that would have been too frightening. No one would have felt they could touch Him. Why didn't He come as a fabulously rich King in the splendor that was due? We would have felt too poor, worthless, and distant. He chose to break into our world as a newborn because in His many ways of inviting us to know Him, He invites us through something to which we're all attracted: a baby.

The disgrace of Mary's circumstances, the hardships that followed, the lonely delivery out in a cowshed...all of these agonies would dissipate as the spotlight now illuminated the human, yet otherworldly face of the Baby King.

Insight: "The Lord has done great things for us...Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy" (Psalm 126:3, 5).