Merry Christmas! I hope you are having a wonderful day celebrating the birth of Jesus!
As I think about this day, I am always taken back to this thought: “What were Mary and Joseph thinking when they looked into the eyes of Jesus for the very first time?” Can you imagine? This child that they had waited for. This child whose birth was announced to them by an angel from heaven. This child who was the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah sent to save the world.
When they laid him in the manger and looked into the eyes of this new little boy, I wonder if they could truly fathom the fullness of who it was they were looking at?
Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, gives us a picture of the one who was born that night. The one in whose eyes Mary and Joseph stared.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6-7
The birth of Jesus was spoken of hundreds of years before it came to pass. His birth was not a surprise to those who had followed the writings of God’s prophets, but how his birth came to be was unexpected. The fact that the Son of God came to this world as a baby, born to a poor, young couple in less than ideal circumstances was not expected. But nonetheless, as Mary and Joseph, resting in a stable, looked into the eyes of Jesus, they were looking into the very eyes of God.
There is no way they could have foreseen everything that would come. But on that night, they saw firsthand the depth of God’s love in the eyes of that little baby boy. A boy that would one day grow into a man, live a perfect and sinless life, die a death he did not deserve so that forgiveness and hope could come to the world, was raised from the grave defeating the power of sin and death, and will one day return to rule and reign forever!
These are the eyes into which Mary and Joseph stared. I wonder, who do you see when you look into the manger? When your mind pictures that little baby, who do you see? Do you see the Son of God? Do you see the Savior of the World?
Is he your Savior and Lord? Today, let’s not miss seeing the fullness of the one who was born on that first Christmas Day. He is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. He is the hope of the world. He is the hope for our lives!
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Zac