This Christmas child

Read > Luke 2:1-12

She gave birth to her first child, a Son. She wrapped Him snugly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them (v. 7).

Watch Him. Watch Him. Watch this Child, who grows into a boy, who grows into a man and is found to be so much more.

Watch as He is born – among shepherds and angels and bright lights in the sky. Watch as He grows in favour and stature – as a youngster asking questions, giving answers, astounding teachers. Watch Him in the desert – a young man in prayer, with hunger and thirst and a calling from heaven.

Watch this strange northerner – with His calloused hands and radical ways – who grew up in “pagan” Galilee, whose brothers once thought Him unbalanced, and whose neighbours once drove Him out of town. Yet watch His authority, His acceptance, His patience. Watch Him touch the leper, heal the diseased, cleanse the impure. Watch Him teach the crowds to forgive and pray always.

Watch Him as He kneels – in a garden, and in anguish. “Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine” (Luke 22:42). Radical submission to a heavenly plan.

Watch as the Son of God is betrayed with a kiss. Watch as they arrest Him and His closest friends flee. Watch as He submits to a fate sketched before time. Watch as they spit on Him and hit Him and crucify Him on a tree.

Watch as one final breath slips from His lips – the sins of the world on the shoulders of one man. Then watch, yes watch, as the stone is rolled away; an empty tomb filled with hope, for He rose again!

Then watch as His name and His fame fills the world.

This God, this Man, this Boy. This Christmas Child. – Sheridan Voysey

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“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied (John 1:46).

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Jesus grew up in Nazareth, Galilee, a region often despised as “pagan” by strict Jews of the time because of its Gentile population. Why is it significant that Jesus came from such a place?