The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is an event of tremendous joy. Lo I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. We can’t explain why we feel a quiet joy each year as Christmas approaches, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle. And yet it’s there. It’s not just that we begin to hear familiar songs, that we anticipate the exchange of gifts, and that we recall fond memories from childhood.
This joy, I believe, comes from an awareness that something extraordinary happened in the little town of Bethlehem, something that changed the course of history, and something that changes the course of my own life. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
No matter where we are in our lives, no matter how far off we may have wandered like the lost sheep, Jesus comes to us each year as a newborn Child. In simplicity, in humility, in poverty, He comes to us. And as our Good Shepherd even at so tender an age, He calls us to return to His fold. With Him, we are family. We are not alone, and with Him we will never spend a Christmas alone. Seeing the poverty of His birth, we realize that with Him we have more than we could ever need.
What gift can we possibly offer to the Newborn Lord this Christmas? What better gift than to share the joy of His coming with those around us. To be patient with those closest with us. And to forgive past wrongs and hurts that we’ve received. Just as the Son of God came to us as a newborn Babe that we might be reconciled to God, so let us, as bearers of this joy, strive to be reconciled with those who we have become estranged from, as much as it lies in our power.
Heaven and earth are united today, for Christ is born. Today has God come upon earth, and man gone up to heaven.
Today for man’s sake He who is by nature invisible is seen in the flesh.
Therefore let us give glory and cry aloud to Him: Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men!
-from the Vigil of Nativity
