BABE IN A MANGER

Dear Friends,

As I am writing this, I am sure that many would like to see the back end of this year and hope for a better 2021. This year certainly has and continues to challenge our thinking, wellbeing and whether we wanted it to or not, it forced change. We’ve all seen an overuse of words such as “pivoting”, “pandemic” and of course COVID-19 or coronavirus. We’ve seen governments globally enforcing lockdowns, economies halted and people restricted to their homes and physical contact. We have seen many relationships challenged, people losing their jobs and church moving online with gatherings restricted. 

So what good has come out of this? Well, for a period of time the “pause” button was pressed on life as we know it and suddenly the busyness was no more, giving everyone an opportunity to reflect on what is or should be really important and that is people, family and loved ones. Many rediscovered the value of life, the value of an authentic relationship with God and how we can extend this to those around us. 

Now, as we are entering into the Christmas period, I’m encouraged to reflect on a time more than 2000 years ago of how God came and entered the world through the miracle of His Son being born of a virgin. “Today... a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” - Luke 2:11. We see the turmoil in the world today, the untimeliness of challenges and may wonder how God will enter these situations. The birth of Jesus shows us how God enters a situation in a way, where in reality, He is neither early nor late. He's precisely on time! Nothing demonstrates the importance of precise timing any more than does the birth of Jesus Christ. Had Christ's coming been either earlier or later, Old Testament prophecies would not have been accurately fulfilled. Paul alluded to the miracle behind the miracle, saying "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law... " - Galatians 4:4. That phrase, "the fullness of time," is a poignant one.

Most will remember that Christ was born in the little city of Bethlehem, but few remember that Mary and Joseph were living in the city of Nazareth, 70 miles to the north of Bethlehem. The Old Testament prophet, Micah, writing 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, had singled out Bethlehem of Judea as the place where the Messiah was to be born. Now any mother recognizes the fact that babies come on their own timetable, and it isn't always easy to predict the timing of their arrival.

It begs the question of why Mary and Joseph had to go to Bethlehem when they were living a considerable distance away? There were hundreds of variables, and if any one of them had failed, Jesus would have been born in Nazareth, far away from the place prophesied by Micah. This all began when Julius Caesar was assassinated, and his grand-nephew Augustus became Caesar. Others were more powerful, but the leadership in Rome chose Augustus because he was young, weak, and they thought could be dominated, but young Augustus by forming certain alliances quickly became powerful and strong. He became the first Roman emperor and one of the most successful.

As Augustus walked around Rome, everywhere he looked he saw monuments to his predecessor, Julius, and it disturbed him. "I need to carve out my name in the granite of Italy," he reasoned, and thus the process began of removing any reminder of Julius to be replaced. Building marble monuments costs money, and political advisors know but one way to do that: tax the people, and in the words of Luke, "It came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed... " At the very beginning of Luke’s Christmas narrative in Luke 2:1-5, we are told that a census took place in the entire Roman world. So whether this census was to register for tax purposes or a census as we know it is not as clear but these were all variables that were playing out at the time.

Are you beginning to get the picture? An order was given. A centurion carried it to the harbour. Passage on a ship had to be booked, and in those days the ship was borne across the Mediterranean by the wind that filled the sails. Had strong winds blown, the messenger would have arrived sooner and Mary and Joseph would have been forced to return to the birthplace of Joseph's father too early for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. Had the ship taken longer or the order to tax the empire gone out later, it would have all affected the timing of the birth of Christ.

The events moving towards the birth of Christ were like the gears of a fine watch - some were large, others small, but each one was connected to another, and they all had to mesh perfectly for the hands of God's clock to point to Bethlehem at the hour of Christ's birth. 

I’m sharing all of this to help give perspective saying that nothing is a matter of indifference with our Heavenly Father – even events in your own life. I am convinced that nothing surprises God or catches Him off-guard. Whatever your lot, wherever you are, God knows and cares. God is seldom early, but He's never late. He is precisely "on time." When the angelic host announced “peace on Earth,” to the frightened shepherds that night, they announced the birth of joy and hope.

Therefore, the greatest gift we can give anyone is... hope, joy and peace.

Nothing else could inspire a time of hope, joy and peace, only the story of Hope’s birth could do that, even if only for a moment. Jesus’s birth is indeed hope’s birth, which blossoms at Easter. Jesus didn’t come into the world to give us only good words and profound examples of moral living. He came specifically to provide a rescue for every human heart, to rescue us from sin and spiritual death by paying the penalty we couldn’t afford to pay ourselves. In Jesus’s own words, he came into the world as God incarnate to offer himself as a ransom so that we can be saved (Mark 10:45).

And because of Jesus’s payment and resurrection, our souls can feel their worth. Christmas is not just the birth of someone whose example helped humanity. It’s the birth of the One who saves humanity from itself. In a paradox of time, Easter’s hope gives rise to Christmas’s joy.

My prayer is that we take time to pause and think about the timely gift of a baby in the manger. Don’t be too overwhelmed or occupied with what is to come... Take a quiet, peaceful moment to ponder the beginning of His life - the culmination of heavenly prophecy but the earthly beginning for Him. Take time to relax, be at peace, and see this little child in your mind. Do not be too concerned or overwhelmed with what was coming in His life at the time or in yours today. Instead, take a peaceful moment to contemplate perhaps the most serene moment in the history of the world - when all of heaven rejoiced with the message “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” - Luke 2:14.

Many blessings

Neels Janse van Rensburg