The Fullness Of Time

By Michael Plemmons

- This month in the midst of so much uncertainty in our world we take time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I think for many of us the true meaning of this event has been lost in the over commercialism that Christmas has become. Today I would take us back in time to a small village called Bethlehem to remind us one and all of not only the true meaning of a holiday, but to receive a new understanding in our hearts of the wonder that this birth was to bring to the entire world.

   Thousands of years had passed since the beginning. Man whom had been created by God in his image had lost his way. Man, who was created to walk in the light and glory of his creator, had become a slave to his passions.

Entire nations were engaged in the slaughter, slavery, and conquest of each other. The word of God says that as God searched the entire world for one righteous man he could find not one.

 Then in the council chambers of heaven God the Father prepared a divine response. He sent an angel to a lowly handmaiden in a glorious visitation. There he informed Mary that the power of the Holy Spirit would over shadow her and that holy one he would place in her womb was the Son of God. John the Baptist yet unborn leaped for joy in his mothers womb when Mary came to visit her cousin Elizabeth and one and all praised God for what he was about to do. 

  Simeon the devoted one was about to see the Savior with his eyes and die contented with the Lord’s promise to him fulfilled. Wise men from the east began a journey that would take them they knew not where. They only knew they were being led by the hand of the unseen God. For a new hope was about to be birthed in the human race as the Son prepared to make his appearance on the human stage.

  Heaven bent down and kissed the earth with its best, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and placed him in a manger. The skies filled with angels all singing in a spontaneous outpouring of love and devotion. How appropriate that it was shepherds tending their flocks that heard this joyous pronouncement. For it was a message to shepherds of every kind that a deliverer had been born who would save the world from the darkness in the human heart.

 As the echoes of the angelic chorus died away, shepherds made their way to the cave to gaze in wonder at the tiny babe lying in a manger. The sense of glory and awe that filled that stable that night we can only imagine. The king of kings, the very God had by his birth become ever linked with the human race. He was the word who spoke the worlds into existence. His was the voice that communed with Abraham, and stirred the heart of the sweet singer of Israel as David played his harp.

 Jesus Christ was a shower of spring rain in a world that had grown crusty and dry because of sin. His was a voice of divine glory leading mankind back to the promise of Eden and beyond. In his birth as throughout his life he reached out to the simple and common as seen in the shepherds, the wise and powerful as seen in the wise men, and the holy and devout as Simeon would demonstrate in the temple. The message of this divine birth is that we all are welcome to rejoice in the wonder that his birth represented.

 Our world today is facing so many potential dangers that threaten us one and all. Yet in the midst of it all let us take the time to in our hearts visit the stable in Bethlehem, and as we behold the babe in a manger, let us everyone take hold of the hope and promise his birth released. No matter what may come let us take heart in the message of the angels. A savior has been born and by that birth the world of that day and today has never been the same.