Bethlehem Calling

Many Centuries ago God brought a new Love into the world.

              Placing it perfectly

                    in dimensions of time and space.

Nothing by chance, but with purpose,

God worked the choreography

         of all the characters of this love story

               through the grittiness of human daily life and love,

                                         failures and successes.

                  His cast of characters are familiar…a lot like us!

    -  Abraham and Sarah who complicated God’s promise

              by human impatience.

    -  Jacob and Esau, through jealousy and greed,

              beget the brotherhood of conflict…

-       Joshua, a mere man, in trust, asked God to make the sun stand still, and HE did...and                  the moon too!

    -  David, a common shepherd was a most unlikely choice to become a king

    -  A sadly barren Hannah finally, bore Samuel 

           gave him back to God

    -  And Job, chosen directly by God,

          to prove the hard worth of integrity

    -  Isaiah, prophesied and his writing became as a ‘Salvation Symphony’

    -  Mary, with heart prepared

    -  Joseph, the noble husband who walked beside her,                                                        honoring what no man could have understood.    

…Oh, it was a long and dusty walk from Abraham to Mary.

     But every chapter and every character needed   

         to prepare the path for a Savior’s arrival.

God was in no hurry…. but, Finally, chose the night

      “when love would come down at Christmas,”

 And that night HE birthed the new narrative,

the opening setting:  a quiet evening in a shepherds’ field.

The common shepherds in that field,

       Were overcome with the presence of heavenly visitors,

            but sensing the call to follow, they found in the sky

 the brilliant star that glittered up the curtain of the night.

           and by it they were guided directly to the manger   

                where baby Jesus lay.

Soon wisemen came from afar to find this new King.

     They were the most learned of their day;

             Persian priests, scholars, philosophers, astrologers,

           Rumor of a new star instantly attracted them!

They were broad-minded men whose horizons

      were wider than their own deserts,

            or they never would have overleaped their national piety, politics, and prejudice

                      to search for and reverence... a Jewish king.

Something told them

      that the new King, though born a Jew,

      would be of universal interest and was more than human.

So, on that night

     Under the guiding star, in a stable stood a most diverse group of witnesses...from the most noted in the culture of their day, to the most common:  

      Wisemen, shepherds, cattle,camels, and little lambs.

Each Witness, With a fore-feeling of divinity present, and

           looking upon this baby Savior, knelt to worship.

And so began a new theme of God’s story of love…

     A love that would become as none ever known before…

        the opening premier, in a common stable.

Just as the Savior of the World was not hidden from    

     witnesses on that Night… 

             neither is he hid from us this night.

For God writes new chapters of his love story in perpetuity,

     and We are his chosen characters.

      …And as we await God’s closing the final chapter of His love story,

It is our faith in this little baby who became our Savior, which carries the

     “Love That Came Down at Christmas”

  to the world beyond those portals of Bethlehem.