December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve
I hope you have all of your shopping done.
I like the way one gal handled her gifts…
After turning eighty, Marie found that shopping for Christmas gifts had
become too difficult, so she decided to send checks to everyone instead. She
wrote, “Buy your own present” on each card and mailed them early. Marie enjoyed
the usual flurry of family festivities. Only after Christmas did she find the
gift checks on her desk, which she had forgotten to enclose.
John MacArthur writes,
CHRISTMAS has really become a hopeless muddle of confusion. The humility
and the poverty of the stable are somehow confused with the wealth and
indulgence and selfishness of gift giving. The quietness of Bethlehem
is mingled with the din of shopping malls and freeway traffic. The soberness of
the Incarnation is somehow mixed with the drunkenness of this season. Blinking
colored lights somehow have some connection to the star of Bethlehem.
"The Incarnation of the Triune
God"
I think that one of the aspects of Christmas that I don’t usually think
about is the quality of humility.
You might think that the birth of the Eternal God would take place in some
ornate palace. But it was humility that
led to the birth of the King of Kings in a lowly manger.
Paul writes,
(Phil 2:3-8 NKJV) Let
nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind
let each esteem others better than himself. {4} Let each of you look out not
only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. {5} Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, {6} who, being in the form of
God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, {7} but made Himself of
no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of
men. {8} And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Illustration
Medieval theologian Guerric of Igny wrote,
DO YOU WANT TO SEE the humility of God?
Look in the manger and see him lying there. Surely this is our God. Seeing an
infant, I wonder how this could be the one who says, "Do not I fill heaven
and earth?" I see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Is this the one who
is clothed in the beautiful glory of unapproachable light? Listen! He is
crying. Is this the one who thunders in the heaven making the angels lower
their wings? Yes, but he has emptied himself in order to fill us.
What’s my point?
God displayed the ultimate humility in a manger at Bethlehem.
He gave us an example to follow.
For some of us, it will take a measure of humility to admit that we need
God. We feel that it’s an admission of
weakness to call on God.
Illustration
A small cathedral outside Bethlehem
marks the supposed birthplace of Jesus. Behind
a high altar in the church is a cave, a little cavern lit by silver lamps.
You enter the main edifice and admire the ancient church. You can also enter the quiet cave where a
star embedded in the floor recognizes the birth of the King. There is one stipulation, however. You have to stoop. The door is so low you can’t go in standing
up.
From Max Lucado, The Applause of
Heaven
Have you taken that step of humbling yourself and asking God for help?
For some of us, we will find that the frustrations, tensions, and conflicts
that always arise at Christmas time will be a bit more manageable if we can
learn to take on the attitude of humility.
Be a servant. Wait on others. Be a blessing.