Monday 25 December 2023
- Bible Book:
- Luke
'To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.' (v. 11)
Background
A heavily pregnant woman on a donkey undertakes a journey of around 60 miles (3–4 days' solid walking) over rough terrain surrounded by the chaos of others also trying to reach their ‘home town’. The scenario was desperate and heightened by the imminent birth of a baby.
Yet here it is. It is so very simple, and yet this birth changed the world in a blink, in the twinkling of an eye. In this everyday event, which happens every few seconds, even today, history was reshaped and reformed from the human point of view.
No announcements were placed in the local papers, there was no advertising for the upcoming event, no shimmering tinsel, no great feast or festive fun. In a cold, dark, smelly stable a baby was born into dire circumstances far from home. All of this to a couple ill prepared for such an event, yet who suddenly became the most important people in the whole world!
Today we would have everything ready: an obstetrician and midwife on standby, clean clothing, bedding and the warmth of a pristine well-equipped hospital room. There would be the security of knowing that all necessary people had been informed and were prepared – even the announcements for the royal birth would be ready to be displayed.
But that was not God’s plan. Instead we got simplicity.
And I ask myself this. If this child had arrived with fanfares and proclamations would we have paid better attention? Would we have taken more notice of what it all meant? No. It was the extraordinary simplicity of the whole story that strikes home each year.
It is that stunning simplicity that lies at the heart of our cherished songs and readings and which warms our hearts yet again as we hear the familiar words of the Christmas story.
We embellish Christmas with food, gifts, decorations, glitter and glitz – and yet, nothing can take away the simplicity at the very centre of the story.
As the late John Betjeman phrased it in his poem 'Christmas' (1954):
‘No love that in a family dwells,
no carolling in frosty air,
nor all the steeple shaking bells
can with this simple truth compare –
that God was Man in Palestine
and lives today in Bread and Wine.’
To Ponder:
- What part of the Christmas story strikes home most for you this year? Why?
Prayer
Lord, may the stunning, eternal, simplicity of the Christmas story be ours this day and every day. Amen.