I have been listening to a song on the radio lately called “A Baby Changes Everything” by Faith Hill (link to the song is at the bottom)
As our family is very expectantly waiting for our new little family member to arrive it has struck me as how true that song really is.
I toured Ray and Victorias nursery and oh my, what a lot of things you need for one tiny little human! A baby changes everything. From the car you drive – if there is no room for a baby seat, to a room in the house from office to nursery, to clothes, strollers, toys, diapers, the list is huge! All for one tiny little person who does not take up a lot of room themselves. Yes, a baby changes everything.
Baby’s change the parents into a mom and dad – forever. They have a new identity.
Baby change the older generation into grandmas and grandpas.
I have had time to ponder the 2,000 year old story of Mary and Joseph and their baby who changed everything.
Mary, unwed, a teenager probably with a story no one would have believed – had everything changed for her.
Joseph wanting to marry Mary but now she was pregnant and it was not his, well this definitely changed everything!
If God had not come to Joseph and tell him to marry Mary, and if Jospeh had not agreed– the story would be so different.
How timely of the government to say you had to go back to your hometown and register right at the 9 month stage! I try to imagine Ray and Victoria packing up and having to walk, ride probably on a donkey or camel off to another town right about now when traveling would be so uncomfortable. Then when they get there – the town is filled up and there is no place for them to stay, so a barn area suffices. The baby comes and who knows, perhaps the lumpy donkey or camel ride was the culprit?
For us with the complete Bible written for our instruction, makes total sense. We know they had to go to Bethlehem because that is where it was predicted hundreds of years before that a Savior would be born. Bethlehem, the name literally means: house of bread. Bread the staple of food for mankind, every culture has a form of “bread”, the substance of the nations. Jesus Himself called Himself the “bread of life", the substance of the nations.
"Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
Mary and Joseph had no such knowledge of this only that the government was forcing them to do things they would rather not do with a baby imminently close. How were they to know that their beginning of the role of mom and dad would begin on that journey.
Then there is the heaven aspect to the whole story. In all of time and eternity – a baby truly did change everything!
God decided in His infinite wisdom to step out of heaven and onto the earth in the form of a helpless human being and He sent His best - His Son, to enter the world completely dependent on a set of new parents, and that truly did change everything.
Their little baby grew up into the Jewish man we know of as Jesus Christ. He was known as a Rabbi, a teacher of the people, a teacher of 12 disciples. But to get to be a Rabbi, this little baby had 30 years of being raised by His parents, taught by His parents, molded by His parents.
We know His mother is vitally important as she is the one who tells Jesus to do His first miracle – turning water into wine at a wedding. Even though Jesus says, it was not His time, He was obedient to His mother and performed the miracle. Mary knew exactly what Jesus was capable of, she always knew.
His mother knew right from the day an angel visited her to tell her she was going to be miraculously pregnant that this baby – would change everything. Interesting that she
was the only one on the whole planet who knew this.
As I ponder waiting, waiting for our new grandbaby, I wonder if Mary ever wondered why her baby, was actually like all other babies. If after all it was a miracle pregnancy, why did life become so hard and ordinary? If Jesus was the long-awaited Savior should there not have been a “royal lifestyle”? It was not so. They even ran for their lives after Jesus was born, heading down to Egypt until God told them it was safe enough to go back to Israel. You would think if you were in charge of the Son of God, it would not be a life of struggles. You would think wrong.
I believe a rock took out one of my new headlights in the car, I had not been aware that I was travelling around with only 1 headlight. Brian noticed it the other day and it explained so much about why I could not see well at night! I had been thinking it was “old eyes” syndrome. I was travelling into Grande Prairie yesterday morning in the dark, so I found myself a “runner”. I tuck my car in behind another vehicle with great headlights and stay in that position. If he can see, I can see, he becomes my “runner”.
It stuck me that this is a great analogy of Jesus. He is our “runner”. Jesus came as fully man, fully human with all the human experiences and then took the position of “runner”, the one who sees. We tuck ourselves in behind Him and His teachings because we know He can see clearly. We do not have to be fumbling in the dark, unless we wish too. Had I chosen to pass my "runner" thinking I wanted to be first, I would have found myself sitting in the leading position, but clearly still very much in the dark. We do this almost absently as we push Jesus and His teachings aside, thinking we perhaps know better.
Mary and Joseph raised Jesus with His siblings in their home. I wonder if Mary thought that Jesus would be so different from other boys because He was the Chosen one after all. Yet there is no mention that Jesus was much different than the other boys in the neighborhood. He trained with His father Joseph to be a carpenter. He attended Jewish school, what would you teach the Son of God that He did not already know? Jesus was their first child so they would have been getting ready to this world of “firsts”. They would need a bed for their baby – did Joseph build one? They would have had to get supplies and clothes for their new little one, they would have had to prepare, same as all new parents.
Why the process of being “ordinary” when Jesus was so Not? What kind of credibility could Jesus have after being raised in a little town of Nazareth, a small town of no significance. It was even quoted in the Bible “can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Yet Goodness itself came from there.
The name Nazareth is thought to mean “watchtower”, what a fitting description for one who can see clearly, leader of the pack, all seeing.
Jesus identifies with the whole process of being human because He lived it. He came in the ordinary way of mankind, as a baby. He lived in an ordinary Jewish home with His parents. It was not until the water into wine miracle that we start to see that Jesus has some extra hidden features. He was not who everyone thought He was.
How exactly did the Bible explain the nature of Jesus:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
That is a pretty weighty job description.
Jesus had some hidden features, being in very nature God and Man. As I ponder the life of our little one to come, I believe that they, like you and me, have some amazing hidden features as well. The potential of every human being is hidden for a while. The small, helpless package that comes at first is exactly like a present sitting under the Christmas tree. We “ohh” and “awe” over the small present, admire the package it is presented in. Then we watch as our little present grows and changes all the while unfolding into the character and talents hidden within.
This Christmas take a bit of time and sit and ponder your family members, all of them. List the gifts, the talents, the treasure that makes each of them unique, that makes them a gift to the world, because that is exactly what each of us is: an absolute gift. We often loose sight of that in the bustle of the world and the crazy pace we try to keep. In so doing, we miss the fact that sitting around the tree, not under, are numerous miraculous gifts we have already been given. Treasure them. Make this the year that you see those treasures with new eyes, new heart and a thankfulness in spirit.
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