Monday, December 23, 2013

The Image of Bethlehem


 
 
 
The Image of Bethlehem

The soloist on the stage at church that Christmas many years ago was singing the beautiful song “Mary Did You Know”. I looked over to my left across the aisle and saw a young mother with a smile on her face and tears running down her cheeks cradling her new born child. The image of Bethlehem came alive right before my eyes.

“…the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger…Luke 2:6-7”

 

Did Mary know her baby had come to save all sons and daughters? That He would give sight to the blind, walk on water and calm a storm with the wave of His hand? Could she even grasp that this small babe she adored was the face of God, the great I AM?

God trusted a peasant girl and a poor carpenter with His greatest gift to the world in a way we are able to understand and relate. Majesty cradled in the arms of a simple, humble woman. Holiness among the filth in a stable. Not wrapped in royal robes but in rags of swaddling clothes.

 God chose the simple and the humble to be the first witnesses to His presence on earth. He sent angels to waken sleepy shepherds in the fields to run and worship the Messiah born in a stable.

We can still see mothers today holding their babies close to them and remember all that God has done for us. And those who seek Him, though humble and poor in spirit, discover they are now the child being cradled in the loving arms of God.

“God walked down the stairs of heaven with a Baby in His arms.” Paul Scherer

“The Image of Bethlehem” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© December 23, 2013

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