'This is it. It’s time; I hope they are ready. Do you think they understand what is happening? A manger; he’s going to be born in a stable and placed in a manger! Will they understand it?
Will they see that his birth in a manger is a symbol of the rule he will have? He is there to turn things around so that they will finally understand the way they are treating each other is not what I want for them. I want them to see and understand that this is not how I wanted it to be. I want them to feel peace, to love each other; I long for them to stop judging one another! Why can’t they feel my love? All of this fighting about who is better at keeping my commands or who is more faithful; that simply is not what it’s all about! This sacrifice is all that I can do; there is no greater show of my love, no bigger sign and no greater sacrifice than this. I will keep trying of course; I will never stop trying to show just how deeply I love them all. But this has to show how much I love them, right? To be there with them, walking the earth with them, understanding how difficult it is for them, feeling their pain and experiencing what it is like to grow as a human child—I love them, that’s why I am doing this.
'It’s time; go, go down and speak with the shepherds. Tell them where the baby they seek can be found…'
As with everything, we do not know how God truly felt in that moment, watching from heaven as people traveled to see the newborn baby. We don’t know what it felt like to at once see Jesus as a baby and know the struggles that lay ahead. We read in Luke 2:13-15 that there was suddenly a great multitude of praise; but what was it like in heaven when the Light of all entered into the world? What does that praise sound like? We can only pray that one day we will know.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
(Note: the above is original content written by this author in 2004. I suggest having a journal and Bible on-hand when you sit down with this devotional in order to complete the full aspects of it.)