Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A Baby Changes Everything

The events of last week have left many of us in tears
clinging to our children,
asking a million questions,
falling on our knees wondering, 
"Where God is in such a cruel suffering?"

With shaken faith we ask, "How can this be? How can our God who loves us allow such an evil tragedy to happen?" Wrestling with this question isn't easy for any of us.  On the way home from bible study yesterday, in the silence, I prayed intensely for the mothers who said good-bye to their precious babies last week, and I was moved interiorly with the thought that Mary, too, watched her son die a horrific death at the hands of cruel injustice.  And, not only Mary, but God the Father as well.  

God watched his son, his flesh, his blood die an unimaginable death.  I had forgotten.  I had removed this truth from my emotions, from my reasoning.  He watched his baby son come into the world in crude conditions, be viciously hunted down by Herod's soldiers, be mocked, scrutinized, beaten and scorned by the masses.  God doesn't just understand our wounds and our pain, He LIVES through them with us.  And, it is within this great mystery of redemptive suffering and redeeming love that we hold fast to our faith and remember why Christ came into the world, a baby, flesh and blood - He came to change everything.  Everything.  For you, for me, for our children for all eternity.

I am looking to our Savior, the infant King, asking Him to bring His peace into our hearts, into our homes and into our world now more than ever.  I believe that he hears and will answer all of our prayers.

A Baby Changes Everything...

1 comment:

  1. I remember that first Christmas after having my first baby. It was the Christmas eve candle light service and I was holding my new(ish) 6 month old baby girl. As we sang Oh Holy Night, it hit me like a thunderclap: "We killed his baby. We killed God's baby. He knew we would, and He gave us Jesus anyway." I gulped big sobby tears and couldn't finish the song, holding even tighter to my sweet bundle. I started to glimpse a glimmer of just how much frightening love God has for all of us, also His children. And you are right - it was THE baby that changed everything. Thank the Lord for the ever-renewing hope of His promise and the Christmas season, which has nothing to do with presents and Santa and everything to do with a BABY that came into the world to teach us to love. - Susan

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