She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling
cloths. Luke 2:7
In the early 19th century, a war-weary world was anxiously watching the march of Napoleon.
All the while, babies were being born.
In 1809, midway between the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo, William E. Gladstone was
born in Liverpool, England; Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Somersby, England; Oliver Wendell
Holmes in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg, Germany; and Abraham
Lincoln in Hodgenville, Kentucky. People's minds were occupied with battles, not babies.
Yet nearly 200 years later, is there the slightest doubt about which made the greater
contribution to historythose battles or those babies?
So it was with the birth of Jesus. The Bethlehem crowds had no inkling that the Son of God
was asleep in their little town. Only a few shepherds came to see Him, and they left
glorifying God.
Oh, how we need to recapture some of the marvel and wonder of that infant child coming
into the world! He came into this war-torn world of selfishness and sin for one
purposeto die as a sacrifice for our sins. The forgiveness He offers will satisfy
the deepest need of our hearts. Truly, Jesus is a gift for all ages. Have you by faith
received that gift?
-DJD
He did not use a silvery box
Or paper green and red;
God laid His Christmas gift to me
Within a manger bed.
-Prentice
No gift is more needed by a dying world than the life-giving Savior.