What if a family welcomed a brand new baby — how exciting — and then placed that baby in a back room of the house to be visited and cared for whenever there wasn’t anything else to do?
Here are a few responses (among others, I’m sure) that you might hear:
Shocking! Call the authorities! This can’t go on; we need to fix this!
You might even say this: “That baby needs to be given to someone who will love and take care of it. It should be their first priority, not their last!”
Or this: “But they waited so long for that baby! Don’t they know how their lives can be changed in so many amazing ways because God gave them such a huge gift?”
Now, what if that baby God gave them was His only son? What if God offered Him to them to keep forever? Just think: The son of God, full of so much strength He could help them get through anything, full of so much love that they'd never ever be unloved or unlovable, full of so much wisdom that they'd be guided through any struggle, problem, or confusing time in their lives, where would they put Him? How carefully would they care for Him?
What if? What if "they" includes you?
It does, you know. God has given you His precious son, to be born into your life the instant you claim Him as Lord and savior of your life.
What if? What if you placed Him in the “back room” of your life, to be visited and paid attention to only whenever you didn’t have anything else better to do?
What if you only sought a relationship with Him when you desperately needed something? That relationship wouldn’t be very strong, would it? Before too long, you might not even recognize His presence in your daily life.
Consider these words spoken by Christ. “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:3-5; 14-15)
As we prepare once more to recognize, celebrate, and grow the amazing gift of Christ in our lives, ask yourself this question: What if Christ’s presence was so strong in every part, every “room” of my life that I simply couldn’t miss it? What if I had all the strength, peace, love, wisdom, hope, and joy I could ever need – enough to even share with everyone I met and never run out? What if?
It really is up to you, you know. If you don’t spend regular time with Him in worship, prayer, and scripture, soon you won’t even recognize Him. He’ll be that baby you were so excited to have, and then you put Him away in the back room of your life.
Shocking, isn’t it? That baby needs to be given to someone who will love and take care of it. It should be the first priority, not the last. Don’t you know how your life can be changed in so many amazing ways because God gave you such a huge gift?
May the gift of Christmas be yours – and may you place Him front and center — each and every day of your life!