A Christmas Blessing

Here she is - our little Christmas angel. Carla has been, is and will always be such a blessing to us. And, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, she gives us reason to pause and contemplate why the One who gave birth to the foundations of the world by the word of His power would be born without the ability to speak.

Lately, Carla has been doing something incredibly cute and obviously desperate as we lay her down to sleep each night. The routine goes something like this - we lay her down and put our hand on her chest and softly whisper 'Good night, sweetheart. We love you.' Quick as lightning, Carla grabs our hands and clutches them tightly to her chest, refusing to let go. She doesn't want us to leave her room but we know that if we don't neither she, nor we, will get any sleep.

Her desperate action makes us think about how we ought to cling to Jesus Christ. Without question, the greatest comfort to us as we mourn the loss of our son Isaac is the great truth that Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Though we may lose everything in this life, as believers clinging tightly to Him, we will never loose Him. For though even our hold should fail, He will never let us go.

What a great comfort it is to know we can never be without Him who is our souls' sufficiency and greatest delight. It truly is amazing to ponder the awesome truth that God clothed Himself in humanity so that He might ransom sinners for Himself. Psalm 2:12 says "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him."

It's easy for our prideful hearts to kiss the sweet baby Jesus in a lowly manger. But, it's harder to bend our knees to the Kingly, Sovereign reigning Son because it requires us to admit to Him our desperate state. Let's take a cue from Carla this Christmas. As we admire our nativity sets; as we gaze upon the Babe in the manger; as we hear the cattle lowing at His lowly birth, let's remember that He was born in such a humble, vulnerable manner so that He could rescue us. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that our condition is so desperate that unless Jesus was born and lived and died and rose again for us, we could never escape our slavery to sin.

"Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery."

This lowly Babe was no ordinary human. Jesus Christ destroyed the power of death by, living the perfect life we never could and dying the perfect death we all deserve. By His obedience, we sinners can be declared righteous and by His death, we can be forgiven. Praise God that He has condescended to help our lowly estate!

There is therefore, no One more worthy of our souls' trust than Jesus. Our hearts' desire and fervent prayer for Carla is that she will cling to Christ by faith and live a life that's pleasing to Him; that Jesus would graciously give her a new heart that loves Him and values Him above all treasures. Yes, take a cue from Carla this Christmas and cling to Him.

More pictures of our little blessing...