Who Knew?
15 Dec

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Years ago, when I was a youngster I would get depressed around the holidays. Partially it was because I had an untreated depression, but I was also extremely sensitive to the hardships of others, especially during the holidays when people are “supposed to be happy.” Anytime I heard a news report about suffering people, the pathos of their situation would triple if it was around Christmas.

Once when I was about thirteen I heard a story on the news about a poor couple in Mexico who had nowhere to go on a cold, winter night. She was pregnant and was forced to have her baby on the side of a road. Obviously, the newscaster drew a parallel to the conditions under which our Savior was born. I cried when I heard about their plight, and the story troubled me for years.

Sometime later, it occurred to me that I never would have heard about that couple had someone not filed a news report. That got me thinking about the plight of Joseph and Mary and the baby they brought into the world during the census that brought them to Bethlehem.

Not only was the event not picked up by newscasters, but in a place where poverty and suffering were common, it might not have seemed especially newsworthy. Jesus’ birth was announced to some shepherds on a hilltop, a few foreigners in another country, and a couple of old people in the temple. Other than those chosen few, no one knew that the greatest event in history was happening right under their noses.

God had his purposes in keeping Jesus’ birth under wraps. But such a world-changing event happening in obscurity made me wonder if I could be oblivious to truly significant events happening today.

Jesus addresses this issue when his disciples asked him what would signal His return at the end of the age. At first, he describes some earth-shattering events, but then he makes this statement:

For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Matt 24:38-39

Knowing nothing about a world-changing event until it happens? Talk about a scary thought!

What would help me become as sensitive as Simeon who recognized the Savior in an eight-day-old baby? Or as observant as the Magi who noticed a new star in the heavens? I’m not sure, but I know it wouldn’t be a Netflix binge.

Lord, help me to listen for your still, small voice so that I can see the wonderful things you are doing in this benighted world today.

Merry Christmas!

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