Jill just spoke of new birth as a recipient of a donor organ. In Ezekiel it is written “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.” In I Peter 1:3 it is written that God gives us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. I want to read a poem that was written by Ann Weems that is called O Lord You Were Born:
Each year about this time I try to be sophisticated and pretend I understand the bored expressions relating to the “Christmas spirit.” I nod when they say “Put the Christ back in Christmas.” I say yes, yes, when they shout “Commercial” and “Hectic, hectic, hectic.” After all, I’m getting older, and I’ve heard it said, “Christmas is for children.” But somehow a fa-la-la keeps creeping out….
So I’ll say it:
I love Christmas tinsel and angel voices that come from the beds upstairs.
And I say three cheers for Santa Claus and the Salvation Army bucket and all the wrappings and festivities and special warm feelings. I say it is good, giving, praising, celebrating.
So hooray for Christmas trees and candlelight and the good old church pageant. Hooray for shepherd boys who forget their lines and a Mary who giggles. O Lord, you were born!
O Lord, you were born!
And that breaks in upon my ordered life like bugles blaring, and I sing “Hark, the Herald Angles” in the most unlikely places. You were born and I will celebrate!
I rejoice for the carnival of Christmas! I clap for the pajama-clad cherubs and the Christmas cards jammed in the mail slot. I o-o-o-o-oh for the turkey and ah-h-h-h for the Christmas pudding and thank God for the alleluias I see in the faces of people I don’t know and yet know very well.
O Lord, There Just aren’t enough choirboys to sing what I feel. There aren’t enough trumpets to blow. O Lord, I want bells to peal! I want to dance in the streets of Bethlehem!
I want to sing with the heavenly host! For unto a Son was given and he was called God with Us. For those of us who believe, the whole world is decorated in love!
All of these passages make you feel wonderful don’t they? I picture in my mind Thanksgivings past surrounded by those you love. There are children laughing and that wonderful smell of mama’s cooking. For many of us holidays can very sad here on earth as many of our relatives have died. Some may have memories of when our children were born or were little and the wonderful things they would say to make us laugh. The memories come flooding back so strongly……... but the memories that I just spoke of is what I think Heaven will be like. New Birth. When we reach the other side the first thing we will see when we open our eyes is our family. They will be a GRAND reunion. There will be mom and dad, grandparents, and all your relatives and joy everlasting. If you remember the classic movie Wizard of Oz, I believe it will be like stepping from a black and white world through that door into a world suddenly full of color. That is New Birth in my mind.
Why do we get the chance to have New Birth? Because God gave us a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger. That tiny baby, so helpless, was sent so that all people may be free from sin. And now, two thousand years later, on this first Sunday of Advent we celebrate the coming of the Christ child. Advent means coming. Long ago that baby was born into a world that desperately needed him. Wise men searched and worshipped him. A star led the wise men that night. Heavenly choirs of angels burst forth in joy. They were celebrating the new birth of our savior, the messiah, the one that had been awaited.
What will be your Advent experience? Will you wait and let another year go by and be tainted by the tinsel of Christmas commerciality? Or will you open your heart to the baby in the manger who came in the night? The star still shines brightly to guide the way to the “One”. We are on the Advent journey to Bethlehem to that stable under that star. What will your decision be?
