CHRISTMAS IS FOR CHILDREN – OF All AGES

CHRISTMAS IS FOR CHILDREN – OF All AGES

I remember being told years ago that God became Man as an infant to ensure there was nothing human, except sin, which was foreign to God. In other words, Jesus was totally immersed in the human experience on earth.

This has a ring of truth to it but it may not be the whole story.

We spend endless energy and enthusiasm escaping from infancy to childhood – a child who is asked, “How old are you?” could reply with painstaking accuracy, “I’m four and eight months and I’ll soon be five!”  ‘Teenage’ is a goal in itself.

At some point the drive to ‘grow up’, to reach upwards and onwards, slows down. We are content to be.

Later, we reach the point where we’d be happy enough to put the whole process in reverse, if we could! But we can’t! You’ll have heard of the three ages of man/woman – youth, adolescence and ‘you’re looking wonderful’.

Could it be that God became a helpless infant to invite us to trust him as a little child trusts in the love and care of its parents? God doesn’t ask us to come to him with a razor-sharp mind, superior knowledge and an armful of qualifications.

Just the opposite – remember Jesus speaking to his heavenly Father: –
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” (Luke 10. 21)

People say, ‘Christmas is a time for children’ and they are correct. It is a time for children of all ages, backgrounds, and health conditions. Without exception, we are all invited to Bethlehem to rediscover what it means to trust totally in our loving, heavenly Father. To do that, we need to become one with the infant God-made-Man which is easier said than done! Unscholarly, unsophisticated shepherds and wise, experienced travellers managed it! Years later so did a thief crucified next to the adult Jesus on Calvary – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23.42)

From his birth to his death, Jesus lived a life of trust in his heavenly Father. The culmination of that trust was revealed, in excruciating pain, on Calvary when Jesus said: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” ‘When he had said this, Jesus breathed his last.’ (Luke 23:46)

The journey from birth to re-birth takes us through many stages of life. Underpinning each needs to be our relationship with God our Father, a relationship characterised by trust, a childlike – but never childish – trust.