Star Light Star Bright

I have been reflecting a little on this season and what it means to me. This is the time of our Savior's birth ... or at least when we celebrate it. It is a time that we should all feel just a little humbled at the magnitude of the gift that was born unto Mary on a cold night so long ago. A gift that would take years to fulfill its purpose. A gift wrapped in swaddling clothes. Have you ever looked up what swaddling clothes are? According to one site they were "narrow strips of fine linen cloth, about two inches wide which were wrapped around the baby's body." The site goes on to explain that a baby would have been "wrapped from head to foot with only a part of his face left uncovered so he could breathe." The swaddling clothes would hold the baby straight and tight, and was actually to "indicate that he (the baby) would grow up to be free from crookedness and waywardness; that as a king he would walk straight and tall before his people." While the child was wearing the swaddling clothes, which was not a long period of time, the parents would be in prayer to God and making their commitment to Him about the upbringing of their baby. Free from crookedness and waywardness, a king who walked straight and tall before His people ... the correlation is not lost on me.

What must it have been like to look upon his little face ... to smell heaven on His newborn skin ... to know that the Redeemer had just been born? We are told of the shepherds and Wiseman who knew, but how many people that were there missed it completely? Thinking about this made me wonder what would happen if His birth had happened today ... in this modern age? Would we have missed it? Would we have seen and believed?


Little one asleep in the hay

what would we say

if you were born today?

Would we follow the star

from both near and far

risking all to be where you are?

Would we offer every thing

In the gifts that we bring

and at your feet our treasures fling?

Would we see beyond the mystery

And grasp the meaning of your identity

recognize the Savior of humanity?

Would we understand the signs

the prophesies of our time

pointing us to the great divine?

Or would we hold tight

to our own lives that night

grasping at treasures

and self fulfilling pleasures

thus missing it all

and finding only a babe in a stall?

Little one asleep in the hay

what would we say

if you were born today?


May the amazing blessing and miracle of our Savior's birth captivate your soul as you celebrate Christmas ... and may you look upon the day with humble adoration for the One who came to save all of His children ... near and far ...

Lisa