A Christmas Sign for 2009

12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:12

We make much of the miracles of Jesus…signs that point us to His Deity, to His power, to His capacity to manage to forgive us and change our lives. But, this was the first sign of Jesus. Luke uses the same word John uses in 2:11 for his first miracle. Yes, the first sign of Jesus was not an obvious miracle of power…but it was a miracle.

The first sign of Jesus was a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The Messiah, The Son of God…Weakness, poverty, and residing in a barn because no one had room for Him.

This didn’t seem like a miracle. This seemed like an everyday occurrence. Yet, it was a miracle that everyone missed except the shepherds. How can God be weak? How can the King of Kings be poor? And how can He be found in a barn? This is the first sign of Jesus, one which most people overlook as a sign: that God can appear in the most unlikely places in our lives; that God can show up in our weakest and smelliest problems; that God can show up when we aren’t wanted and no one moves over and makes a space for us. That’s a miracle.

And, once we recognize the miracle that God can show up in weakness, in poverty, and in the smelly, dirty places of our lives, we will never be the same. Luke 2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Yes, people return to their everyday tasks from Christmas, but a distinct note of praise and joy is mixed into the everyday after that experience with God. Like the shepherds, when we discover God in the weak, smelly, dirty places of our lives, we forever have a tinge of joy in our everyday lives.

My Prayer for you this Christmas Day: that you will mix joy and praise into your everyday because you’ve made room in your schedule for seeing Jesus.