Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2: 6, 7 (NKJV)
And then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid…For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” Luke 2: 10-12 (NKJV)
I can say a lot of things about God as I sit here this morning a week after Christmas and a few days from stepping into a New Year—but the one thing that stands out among them all is this—
He never gave up on me.
Looking back I can see that I gave up on me—many times. Others through my early years as a child gave up on me also—and shut me out.
But He never did.
Despite the fact that I made absolutely no room in my life for Him for many years—He just kept tapping on my life. If the truth be told, I knew that if He was like any of the other adult-like people in my life, I was sure I couldn’t trust Him either.
No room in my life for Him—and He kept coming anyway.
Funny, but that’s the way it’s been throughout the centuries with God and the rest of us. We turn from Him, and we choose different directions for our lives, love everything else in the world but Him—and He still never gives up on us. We make no room—or minimal room—for Him in any of the days of our lives, turning away from His outstretched arms, toward idols of comfort, wealth and success unsuccessfully trying to find meaning in our lives.
And He keeps coming. He keeps tapping on our lives.
Maybe that’s why I’m moved to tears every time I read those verses above and the rest of the Christmas story in Luke chapter two. God came for me—and you—in the form of a baby over two-thousand years ago. A baby who was God’s ultimate gift of love, of grace and hope for our lives. God’s laser-like spotlight into the darkness of our lives and the world around us. God’s spotlight into the dark, dirty, damp, and dung-filled stables of our lives.
That birth we paused to celebrate again a week ago—another Christmas day.
Maybe He knew that I still needed a reminder of His presence when He sent our elder Granddaughter Hannah to us twenty years ago, and then Ellie Kate fifteen years ago. A couple of precious taps on my shoulder, reminders—through their lives—when I had a hard time seeing the Baby in the manger, or the man Jesus walking in the world and tapping on my life. Reminders of His never-ending love and grace.
He just kept coming. An eternal Light of hope shining into my world.
I don’t know what’s going on in your life right now. I don’t know the pain of the past you carry with you. I don’t know what the future holds for you. I don’t know what is keeping you from making room for Him in your life.
But I’ll let you in on a secret, throughout it all He’s still there. Throughout it all, He still keeps coming. Tapping on your life and mine to not only let Him in, but to let Him be the priority He needs to be so that we can become all He intended for us to be.
And He will never give up on you, or on me.
That’s the message of the Babe of Bethlehem.
That’s the message of Christmas.
Love and Light—that never gives up.
God loved us so much—He sent His Son—to demonstrate that He was still there. That He was still tapping on our lives. That He would never give up on you and on me.
Love and Light—forever tapping.
Amen and Amen!
In His Name–Scott
