Saturday, December 24, 2011

You'd be crying too!

No crying he made?  Really?  Come on - the writer of that carol couldn't do better than "away in a manger... no crying he made?"

Anyone who with a baby has politely discounted that line as poetic license for over 100 years... but my eleven year old son put the song in new light for me this year.  His observation, simple and profound, had nothing to do with the capacity of infant lungs to create sounds which demand the attention of any adult in the room, but rather what was in that little body.

All of God crammed into eight pounds of human tissue - now that would elicit some crying!  One minute you are all of all, unlimited in every way, and then, there you are, bound by biology, physics, and a puny human brain.  As earth's atmosphere fills your lungs for the first time, it is not a moment for peaceful reflection but a cry of eternal depth.  Not a cry of sadness, mourning, need or frustration, but a cry to release the shear adjustment of it all.

All the power of the universe and beyond, bound into the flesh of a baby.
That is the wonder of Christmas.

I hope you allow the power of Jesus to touch your life this Christmas.