And this will be a sign for you:
you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:12
With every walk into GCC’s new building, I pinch myself and whisper, “Can this be true? Is this spacious facility really our new church home?” I walk by the beautifully decorated Sunday school rooms, grateful for the contractors who built them and the volunteers who did the finish work, scarcely able to comprehend God’s provision, right down to donated furniture that looks like it was special ordered.
When we sing worship songs on Sunday morning, my feet and back sing too, thankful for a level floor instead of the high school auditorium’s incline which aggravated this aging body. Before Tim’s sermon, I sink into my chair and relish its soft and sturdy comfort. “Can it be?” I wonder. “Can this great big, beautiful gift be for us?”
I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. Which makes me think of the night when the angel appeared the shepherds tending their flocks. “Do not be afraid,” he told them, “for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.”
The sign was a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.
No clean, carpeted and toy-stocked nursery for him. No bathroom with running water and a toddler-sized toilet ready for potty training. No Sunday school classrooms painted bright colors, the furniture the right height for little people. No soft and sturdy chairs for Joseph and Mary. No level floor to bear their aching feet. No furnace, no air conditioning, no rooms painted warm, inviting colors.
Only a Savior, a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.
A baby who was God in human flesh. A baby who became a man. A man who poured compassion upon the poor and outcast, healed the sick, cast out demons, and fed the five thousand. A man, fully human and fully divine, who led a sinless life, suffered the betrayal of his closest friends, condemned for crimes he did not commit. The Son who loved men enough to hang on a cross in their place, who bore the wrath of his Father on their behalf, and died that they might live. The God more powerful than death, who rose on the third day, appeared to the disciples and ascended to heaven after forty days. The God who sent his Comforter, the Holy Spirit to be with us always.
This was the greatest gift: a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.
“Can it be?,” I wonder, “Can this holy and beautiful gift really be for us?”
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
II Corinthians 9:15
