BABE

The Babe - how everyone loves to see a baby. Watch people gather round! Notice the glistening eyes of old ladies when faced with the tiny infant in a mother’s arms - memories of long ago. Look at the smiling faces of teens and twenties - dreams of what might be. How beautiful, how vulnerable, how fragile, how dependent - the new-born babe holds all our hopes for the next generation and all the fears of what might be.

Travel back over 2,000 years to Bethlehem. Pass the nice houses, the big houses, the poor houses, the inns and come to a manger. We are not sure where it was. All we know is that it was not in the inn, for there was no room for them there. To our surprise, we find a new-born babe in the manger, His mother, Mary, and her husband Joseph. A babe in a manger, but every mother’s wish would be for her firstborn to have the best, and, at the very least, to be born in warm and clean surroundings. Mary, the mother of the Saviour, had already suffered a long and arduous journey as a result of the task God had given her, but she also suffered the indignity of childbirth in very difficult circumstances.

What of the Babe? This child was, in one sense, no ordinary child. He was the heir to the throne of Israel. He was, and ever is, God manifest in flesh and the Lord of heaven and earth. His title and honours are more than this short piece could express.

However, what is remarkable is that to look at the babe you would never have known. This one who is so great became a baby. He suckled at Mary’s breast, ate and slept like any other baby. In physical terms He was vulnerable, fragile and dependent upon Mary, yet He still is the Almighty God. The great mystery of godliness is seen in the incarnation of Christ. Isaiah expresses the mystery when he says ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ... and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace’, Isa. 9. 6.

Mary’s firstborn son was a beautiful baby and every inch a baby and the wonder of the grace of God is such that this babe was the Son of God.