I got an email this past week requesting volunteers for a live nativity in our area. It has been cold these past few weeks, so I am not sure if they got all the volunteers needed. I know it is too cold for me to spend hours outside, and I doubt there were any old women in the stall that first Christmas anyway.
But then again, as I thought more about that, maybe there were. Maybe Joseph found a mid-wife or a woman nearby to help. Or maybe, he did not. We are not told a lot about how the birth of Jesus took place, just the where and the why.
It is that why that always amazes me at this time of year. Jesus came to set us free from sin and death. The Scriptures are abundantly clear that mankind got itself in a mess – a mess that only God could fix. God made a way.
Last Sunday in church we sang a Christmas song with one line that has played through my mind every night this week. “He made a way in a manger, a way through the cross ….”
The manger is nothing without the cross, the resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus to the right hand of the Father. Christ Jesus made the way for us. Through His cross and resurrection, He overcame death and the grave. He made us alive with Him, forgave us all our sins, erased our debt, and opened the way to the Father’s House. Christmas is all about the cross.
“And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.” [Colossians 2:13-14 HCSB]
(773) the Ball Brothers - It's About the Cross (OFFICIAL video) - YouTube
