“Do you hear what hear? A child, a child, crying in the night.”

There it is again. Do you hear that? I’m telling you there is something different about that cry in the darkness that I am hearing. There. Again. Listen. A baby is crying. A cry like I have never heard before. Why is this cry making me so anxious? Excited? Hopeful? Why am I hearing this? Do you guys hear this over the sheep?

“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.  Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:8-15 (NLT)

Christmas. The day, time, Season when God could no longer bear the anguish of His children being left in silence. 400 years of quiet from Malachi’s warnings and promises to John the Baptist preparing the way in the wilderness. Jesus, the Christ, Immanuel (God With Us), born in a manger because, well he was God’s son and God always delivers His promises in ways that none of us expect.

“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Malachi 3:1 (NLT)

Now 800 years after Isaiah foretold Jesus’ coming and the events surrounding his birth with complete clarity and accuracy, including 400 years of silence with evil permeating every area, the culture and dare I say it, “religion” of the World, including God’s chosen children (the Israelite’s), a baby arrives The baby has come.

The truth of Christmas:

• Hope to the hopeless.
• Joy for the joyless.
• Love to the loveless.
• He who makes the least first and delivers a new Covenant for all people.
• The promise of eternity with the Maker of all things if we simply, trust and believe the reason for this Season.
• Jesus.

I have to believe that the shepherds who had an angel appear before them with the news of Jesus birth, followed by a Heavenly host of angels worshiping as had never been seen before, then the incredible realization of all that was said to them, all that had been foretold, all the hope of the World, lay in front of them, were never the same. I imagine them running to everyone they knew. Quietly, secretly, impatiently saying “He is here.” Hope is here. The King. The King of all Kings. God’s Son. The baby. He has been born. Here. In Bethlehem. And then, the cynicism of the culture of the day said, “yeah right, there’s no way that God will come through a human. (He did, her name was Mary.) There’s no way He will first be revealed to a bunch of unclean shepherds. (He did, on that quiet hillside to the least who followed the great career track of so many in the Bible, including David.) I believe they were told, “God is too magnificent for what you are describing and we will define how His return will happen. This isn’t it!”

Twenty eight generations after God chose a shepherd boy to slay a giant, literally and metaphorically. Twenty eight generations after God used a flawed man whose heart was closest to God. Twenty eight generations after victory, loss, gain, retreat, sinfulness that compounded in unimaginable ways, Jesus, the Savior of the World, has come. 1000 years between King David and King Jesus. 1000 years and the World was in disarray and desperation. All was lost. All was gained.

In this Season of reminded hope and corrupted focus, rest assured that Jesus birth was and is the single greatest event in human history, second only to his resurrection from the grave 33 years later. In a time that markets “Season’s Greetings” over Christ(mas) and Worldly efforts to drown out the unquenchable flow of Living Water that comes from the birth, human life, death and eternal life of Jesus, know without question that the significance of the Christ, has never been more relevant than it is today.

“Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

John 4:10 (NLT)

The beautiful message of Christmas is this. Our God never changes. His love is never ending. His son ever giving. Hope always present. Christmas is the affirmation that we are created in the image of God and worthy of His son’s sacrifice to bring us back into relationship with the Father. Christmas confirms that you matter to the God of all things.

Know, know without question that

“For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,^[a] Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)

Merry Christmas