Wrapped as a sign and a gift

She gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger...This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:7 & 12

This is now 2 days before Christmas here in Iowa...there is about 7 inches of snow on the ground, which is a lot for here, especially this time of year, and it is -2 degrees, also much colder than usual for this time of year, but it does put one into the whole Northern Hemisphere Christmas spirit. Was watching Hillsong celebration of Christmas (they are in Australia) and it is a much different picture. We think of Christmas being a winter thing, but it is more likely that Christ was born in the spring, according to things I have heard. But whatever the season it was, the baby needed to be covered. And He was covered in cloths. Swaddling clothes, we call them. The baby was papoosed up, wrapped tightly with cloths, snuggled to keep warm and secure. We don't consider this unusual since we have heard this story since we were children. Baby born, wrapped up in whatever they could find, and laid in a bed of straw in a feeding trough. Humble beginnings. One pastor yesterday pondered that coming poor, no one would believe that the Christ did not come for them, that He was too good for them, too rich, powerful, or out of grasp for them. He was one of the people, and that was more of a problem for the rich and powerful than it was for the common man. The common man loved Him. The rich and powerful resented Him.

But the cloths were more than just a covering for a newborn...they were a sign to the shepherds. Angels told them just a few things...

1. Don't be afraid of us
2. We bring good news for everybody
3. Today the Savior is born in Bethlehem, fulfilling scriptures
4. He will be wrapped in cloths
5. He will be lying in a manger (not being held in His mother's arms at that moment) (giving them an idea not to knock on hotel doors or houses, but to look in cattle stalls)

The first thing they know about the Savior of the world is how he is dressed! And He is dressed like a poor, unassuming baby. Nothing fancy...no fine linen or purple or scarlet marking Him as priestly or royalty. Just normal, poor, and humble. This is how they would have wrapped their own children in their own homes. He was just like them. Poor, rejected, lowly. And lying in a cattle feeder...Mary and Joseph taking a nap, perhaps, after a long night and the strains of childbirth. This was the Savior who identified with them, and they with He. They could come into His presence straight away...no making appointments at the palace or ceremonial cleansing in the temple, both of which would have been closed down at those hours, anyway. Those cloths represented more to those shepherds than they could have imagined...they made Him “him” with a little “h”, normal, human, and one of them. But they knew at the same time that He wasn't just one of them, because they knew that from those humble beginnings their salvation had come. There had been angels shining in the glory of the Lord, but there was no shining in the stable. The glory of the Lord made know His arrival, but the finding of the Christ child was done in the darkness of the night. Maybe it was morning by the time they got to town, or they had lamps lit going from stall to stall. The star was a sign to the Magi, not the Shepherds...who were led to a house, not a stable...so once those angels left and the light that came with them, we are talking darkness. That is how we find the Lord ourselves, like the shepherds...the Spirit of the Lord comes to us in our darkness, shines a light and tells us that the Savior is there for us if we will just go and find us where He directs, and we stumble through the night to that place, and find Him, humble and accessible. He is like us, but not at all...He is so much more than He appears. He had been stripped of His true Godliness and glory at His birth and was wrapped up in cloths, and at His death He was stripped of this earthly life and was again wrapped in cloths at His death. But the unwrapping proved His true self. He didn't stay wrapped...He grew in life, and He reigned in death. And it was all to bring God down to us so that we could someday join Him in the eternal life He brings.

There is no other God like this, people. No other God comes to us. No other God becomes human, lives to teach us about God, dies to bring us to God, and rises to raise us from death to eternal life.

And that is what Christmas is all about. I don't worry about taking Christ out of Christmas...it is taking the gift of Christ and rejecting it...not believing, not receiving, and putting Him equal with the other
gods the world has to offer. The world does not offer Jesus to you. The only God who will share His glory with no one else but His Son and His Spirit offers Him. To celebrate His birth and death as something common and not realize the implications for your eternal destiny is the real tragedy, not the commercializing of the holidays. Take His word into your lap this holiday season and ponder the coming of the King and what it means to you. Hold the baby wrapped in cloth to your bosom and see if you don't fall in love with the Newborn King.