Unwrapping Gifts - Day 2

On this final day of the week, before we embark upon the closing week of a dying year, we continue our special unwrapping.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2: 6 - 7.  

Yesterday, unwrapped for us, was the wonderful word that assured of God’s Holy Spirit as your:           

Accompanying One – He, who is your Companion,                                                 

Assisting One – He, who is your Constant Companion.

Associating One – He, who is your Conscientious, Constant Companion.

Today, we move from the word, they to the word them. Remember, in Luke 2: 6, it was stated, while they were there, and we received grateful prizes and surprizes from it. In like manner, we are unwrapping from another very insignificant, yet most precious word.  

In the verse for today, the word them, refers to Joseph, Mary and Mary’s first born, Jesus. You see, Mary is no longer pregnant, for she has given birth and there is space needed for Jesus also. There was no room for them, meaning Joseph, Mary and Jesus, but look at it. There was plenty of room for them, in the stable. Room in the stable and not in the inn, meant that there was no room in the inn for the Love that was made flesh to all seeing eyes.

I have said to you that with the Love you are carrying, you are walking the path to birth, with God’s Holy Spirit. But when birth takes place, then all eyes, including your eyes, see. Your hands touch, your ears hear, your lips kiss and your heart warms, at that which was never before seen with your eyes. This is the season when Love is given Birth. It is the time when you will see, for the first time, Love within you that is made flesh, made visible.      

There was room in the stable, not the inn. He that was born to Mary was wrapped and placed in a manger. See the significance of manger, as humble, human, small, outside even. Now here is a thought for you. The stable is a barn, and it is a place which also housed people. The barn is where you are most likely to see the hobo, the vagrant, and strays. There is always a barn present. Think about it!  The joy of this season is that the barn is never without room for them, a Joseph, Mary and Jesus. 

Take your eyes off the inns of this life and delight in the privilege, the opportunity, the favour bestowed upon you, to be allowed to have your Love, born in a barn. Love is of God, for God is Love.  It is Love, in human flesh that is being born in you. You know that it is different and special, but you so want the best, the highest, the nicest, for this love that you hold in your heart, that you kick and fight against the barn experience. For you, it is too ordinary and small an experience, too hushed and low-keyed. And worst of all, you see it as too human a happening.

Where are you in all this? I ask you to think deeply on this question. Who is to know whether or not, on the night Mary had her baby, many other babies were not being born also? It mattered not, you know, because this ordinary, daily, child-birthing exercise is common to women of all different stations in life. However, God made this natural birthing of Love, most special, a Gift of peace, hope, joy and salvation to many.

Share your birth of Love.  It is that which you will bypass as too simple, too insignificant, too human, or simply nothing to talk about. You may feel that what you are thinking about, is what people do all the time, but I tell you it is different this time, because it does not come from you.

O Holy Lord God, I thank You for unwrapping these precious gifts to us.  Let us see that Love, ‘Born in a Barn’, is still Your Way. As we prepare to face another new year, as You will, may we and others, find Peace, Hope, Joy and Goodwill in the Love that You have evidenced in us. Thank You Jesus for Love. Amen!