Listen

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 2:6-7

Think

Bono, social activist and frontman for U2, once spoke of the amazing idea that God would seek to explain God’s self by taking on the form of a child born in poverty. He said, “I just thought: ‘Wow!’ Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable.”

As a father of a 5-year-old daughter and a newborn son, I’ve become more aware of the vulnerability of a child. The piercing screams, the scrunching nose, the wiggling fingers and toes, and the gazing eyes. It amazes me that this is how God showed up to dwell among us. Not a man-sized warrior or a wise old king, but a baby born in a cow trough in the poorest area of town.

A love most dear and vulnerable has arrived.

Andy Acton

Pray

God, thank you for coming as a child to live among us. Show me how to see the love of Christ in all of your children. Amen.

Go

Eternity has whispered your name
And so you have waited,
Waited with great anticipation
While preparing yourself for the coming of God's great gift.

Now the gift is here.
Waiting is over.
The anticipated arrival has come to pass
And your preparation is accomplished.

Go now in the blessed peace of Immanuel. God is with us!