Baby's Firsts

Today, a newborn is welcomed with the best of care—scientific and antiseptic. 

The doctor suctions his mouth and nose to clear away fluids, enabling the baby to breath on his own; cuts the umbilical cord; then takes the baby's heart rate, reflex response, activity, muscle tone, breathing, etc. The infant will also receive antibiotic eye ointment to prevent eye infections and a vitamin K shot to prevent clotting problems, etc. 

Now, contrast this with the night Jesus was born.

Imagine a stable or a cave (the Bible does not specify the place). Both are dark and dingy, perhaps with animals roaring about. There Jesus was laid in a manger, a feed trough for animals, with only His teen-aged mother and father making sure he was comfortable. 

Our Savior’s first human experience was so different from yours, mine, and the babies’ of this modern generation. In the stable or cave, Jesus must have experienced the first of his many tears. He would come to know human sorrow—sickness, death, betrayal, animosity, ridicule, and humiliation, ending in a painful death.  

From that night He was born, God has been with us. “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23 NLT)

Because Jesus loves you and me, He became human, and therefore can relate to our problems. So let us never feel like nobody understands us. Jesus does.

May the Light that shone upon the world that night cast its magnificence into our hearts this Christmas, giving us the peace on Earth of which the angels spoke long ago.

Reflect and pray: 

How can I honor our Savior for such love, first demonstrated on Christmas?