Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Daily Devotions - Wednesday 12.19.07

‘Tis The Season: God with us

“The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.”

A prophetic vision of God’s peaceful realm (Isaiah 11:6)

Wednesday: Letting a Child Lead Us

We continue to journey toward a holy day for Christians. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, not because December 25 is his birthday, but because it is important to celebrate God’s incarnational presence among us. I invite you to meditate on various realities of what it means to sense that God is with us.

A friend has a sister who is married to a former major league baseball player; they live in California. They have an adopted son named Seth whose birthday is December. Here is a conversation that mom and Seth had when he was 4 years old, as mom tried to help him understand the mysterious relationship of Santa, Jesus and Christmas.

Mom: Seth, so you know why we celebrate Christmas?
Seth: Yeah, cause Santa gets me a present and then I get to open the present that Santa brung me.

Mom: But why does Santa bring gifts?
Seth: So I can open them.

Mom: No, Santa brings gifts because we are celebrating someone’s birthday; whose birthday is it?
Seth: I don’t know.

Mom: It’s someone who came from heaven and we celebrate their birthday.
Seth: OHHHH that’s ME!

I can see that while the Holy One is definitely alive in this child, mom probably feels like there’s lots of teaching to do. How about you?

--Ben Keckler
12.19.07

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