Merry Christmas!! What a wonderful wish. That first Christmas would not have seemed merry to Joseph and Mary. The ridicule of friends for this out of wedlock baby (or at least before the marriage ceremony), the terrible timing of a census that required a mother in her final days before birth to travel 80 miles, a four day journey, then there was no room for them in any establishment or home except for a cave stable filled with animals. How could this Christmas be merry? What made the difference? It was the child!! This baby changed everything.
Faith Hill's new song A Baby Changes Everything puts it like this:
A Baby Changes Everything
Teenage girl, much too young
Unprepared for what's to come
A baby changes everything
Not a ring
On her hand
All her dreams and all her plans
A baby changes everything (x2)
The man she loves she's never touched
How will she Keep his trust
A baby changes everything (x2)
And she cries, oh she cries
She has to leave, go far away
Heaven knows she can't stay
A baby changes everything
She can feel it's coming soon
There's no place, there's no room
A baby changes everything (x2)
And she cries and she cries O she cries
Shepherds own they got their ...
Star shines down...
Choir of Angels say
Glory to the newborn king
A baby changes everything (x2) everything, everything, every day
Hallelujah x4
My whole life is turned around
I was lost and now I'm found
A baby changes everything (x2)
The baby changed everything. Yes angels appeared, shepherds rejoiced, an old man and woman confirmed, and eventually wise men worshiped, but these were not the biggest changes. Times would still be tough, but God Himself in the form of this infant son, came into the world to save the world. The world would never be the same.
God wants our life to be changed because of this Christmas Child. I pray that you will come to the manger, to the cross, to the empty tomb, and your life will be changed forever. It is the only way to truly have a Merry Christmas!!