A Really Big Birth Announcement
To you.
This week, those two words are ringing in my head as the most important words in all of Scripture.
I get birth announcements all the time. My friends just can't seem to stop reproducing. So at any given time, there is at least one photo of someone else's new bundle-o-joy on my fridge. The verbiage hardly ever varies: Fred and Wilma proudly announce the arrival of our daughter, Pebbles...
And there is, invariably, a photo. Usually of a wrinkly, sleeping baby. Sometimes with close-ups of tiny toes or feet, because everybody loves baby feet. Sometimes big brother or sister make it onto the card. I love those.
I love birth announcements, but they don't change my life. I love babies, and I particularly love the babies of friends who know me well enough to send me an announcement. But aside from a general warming of the heart at the photo and the scheduling of a post-hospital meal, birth announcements are not meant to alter the lives of their recipients. They are every parent's one chance at acceptable bragging.
"Look what we did! We made this beautiful child. We are introducing this beautiful child. This beautiful child is ours. Ours. Ours. Ours. Not yours. Ours. All other children are now also-rans, because look at this child of Ours. This child that was born to Us. We just wanted you to see this child, but let there be no mistake that this child was born to Us. That's why our names are on this announcement. Because this baby is Ours."
But there was one birth announcement that differed.
I noticed it this week while reading the announcement of Jesus' birth. Of course, all the usual baby announcement stuff is there, minus the part about the parents, his height and weight and a photo, although it did include information on where to visit him. But in the absence of digital printing capabilities, the creator of this child opted for a celestial singing telegram to get the word out. This is where it starts to sound a little different.
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11
Maybe this is one of the passages that I know a little too well, in its poetic beauty and majestic visual imagery. I hear it in Linus's voice. I am distracted by pageant angels that soar back into my mind when I come across this section of scripture.
But here it is again:
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given..." Isaiah 9:6a
Those two words - to you, or, to us - that's what makes this one different. It's the only birth announcement in history where the baby not only is introduced, but also is presented as a gift to the recipient of the announcement. Can you imagine? What if the next birth announcement you receive comes attached to a baby? Or...(go with me here)...What if you needed a kidney to live, and you receive a birth announcement attached to a baby who is an exact match?
The Gospel is right there, in those two words. He came...to you. God sent Him to us. It was the plan, from the beginning, for that child to be a gift to us. God didn't use that Angelic Host to say "Look what I did! Here's the King of the World!"
No, he commissioned a mass choir to announce the arrival of a life-giving gift - Messiah, come down, to you.
This week, those two words are ringing in my head as the most important words in all of Scripture.
I get birth announcements all the time. My friends just can't seem to stop reproducing. So at any given time, there is at least one photo of someone else's new bundle-o-joy on my fridge. The verbiage hardly ever varies: Fred and Wilma proudly announce the arrival of our daughter, Pebbles...
And there is, invariably, a photo. Usually of a wrinkly, sleeping baby. Sometimes with close-ups of tiny toes or feet, because everybody loves baby feet. Sometimes big brother or sister make it onto the card. I love those.
I love birth announcements, but they don't change my life. I love babies, and I particularly love the babies of friends who know me well enough to send me an announcement. But aside from a general warming of the heart at the photo and the scheduling of a post-hospital meal, birth announcements are not meant to alter the lives of their recipients. They are every parent's one chance at acceptable bragging.
"Look what we did! We made this beautiful child. We are introducing this beautiful child. This beautiful child is ours. Ours. Ours. Ours. Not yours. Ours. All other children are now also-rans, because look at this child of Ours. This child that was born to Us. We just wanted you to see this child, but let there be no mistake that this child was born to Us. That's why our names are on this announcement. Because this baby is Ours."
But there was one birth announcement that differed.
I noticed it this week while reading the announcement of Jesus' birth. Of course, all the usual baby announcement stuff is there, minus the part about the parents, his height and weight and a photo, although it did include information on where to visit him. But in the absence of digital printing capabilities, the creator of this child opted for a celestial singing telegram to get the word out. This is where it starts to sound a little different.
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11
Maybe this is one of the passages that I know a little too well, in its poetic beauty and majestic visual imagery. I hear it in Linus's voice. I am distracted by pageant angels that soar back into my mind when I come across this section of scripture.
But here it is again:
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given..." Isaiah 9:6a
Those two words - to you, or, to us - that's what makes this one different. It's the only birth announcement in history where the baby not only is introduced, but also is presented as a gift to the recipient of the announcement. Can you imagine? What if the next birth announcement you receive comes attached to a baby? Or...(go with me here)...What if you needed a kidney to live, and you receive a birth announcement attached to a baby who is an exact match?
The Gospel is right there, in those two words. He came...to you. God sent Him to us. It was the plan, from the beginning, for that child to be a gift to us. God didn't use that Angelic Host to say "Look what I did! Here's the King of the World!"
No, he commissioned a mass choir to announce the arrival of a life-giving gift - Messiah, come down, to you.
Comments