What beautiful words are spoken to us through the Gospel, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.””. Our mother Mary brought into the world on this night, so far away in Bethlehem, the child who’s coming had been foretold by the prophets for so long, and whose people had awaited him with great expectation for generations.
Our Lord came for each one of us, and in the humblest of forms, so that He could be seen by all of us as someone who would know and understand us, no matter how humble our own circumstance might be. I don’t mean this in terms of money or social status, but in our own interior brokenness that we all have as part of us. Every one of us, in this Church here this evening, either now, or at some point has experienced brokenness, or are still broken in some way. For those of you old enough to remember this reference, in some sense we are all citizens of the “Island of Misfit Toys”. Kids feel free to ask Mom and Dad, or perhaps even Grandma and Grandpa about that last reference. You see, like the characters in the story that reference comes from, we all seek healing or fixing in some way, but most of all we seek to be loved and accepted.
The whole point of what we celebrate here tonight, is the birth of the Child who would bring hope into each of our lives by his coming to earth to share our form. He came to heal our brokenness and give us a reason to no longer see ourselves as forsaken, or our future as desolate. You see, when we look upon the babe in the manger, we look upon the man who would heal, and would teach, and would sacrifice Himself for each of us one day on the cross. We look upon God who created all that exists, and who is without beginning, or end. When Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus into their arms and looked upon Him for the first time, it was with the knowledge that they cradled God within their arms, and that nothing would ever be the same on this earth with His coming.
This brings me back around to what I said earlier about each of us seeking our brokenness to be healed and to be loved for who and what we each are. God created each of us in His image, and despite the weaknesses that come with the human form, we are each of us beautiful and loved in His eyes. He seeks to draw us close to Him and comfort us, just as Mary comforted her Son in her lap in that humble manger in Bethlehem. He heals us and brings wholeness to our lives, and he welcomes us home, if we will let Him. You see, the question has never been whether God loves us, it is whether we will let Him fully love us and be part of our lives. He has always sought this intimacy with us, the only thing holding back the healing of our brokenness and that love that we so crave, is sometimes our own unwillingness to open ourselves to Him. On this Christmas Eve, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord, I pray that we are each willing to allow the Christ child into our lives and embrace Him with the same love with which He seeks to embrace each of us.
The Deacons Bench 