Birthday Milestones and the Baby Jesus

As the chill of winter dances in the air, we gaze down into the manger and celebrate the child born for our salvation. Each Christmas, cultures around the world have Jesus pictured as a sweet baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, arriving with the misfortune of having a feeding trough suffice as a first crib. We have annual reminders of the tender scene of new parents and newborn life. With the best of intentions, we celebrate the coming of the Lord to earth.

Happy Birthday, Jesus…

Is our focus given to three men, some pricey gifts, and a star? Are the shepherds the main character of our play? Is Mary’s role as willing vessel superseding the lead role? Are the birthday scene and the nostalgia of a tiny babe in a manger all we have to celebrate in this season of Christmas? I pray not.

While God’s fullness of time and the arrival of the long awaited Messiah thrill my heart and yours, may we not merely remember the King of kings as an infant. His season as deity clothed in humanity provided a distinct layer of God’s purpose. It revealed Jesus on the earthly stage, in earthly ministry for us to see. While on this planet, He walked among us as fully God, fully man, but it certainly wasn’t the beginning of His relationship with God…or mankind.

Jesus is. He was. He will always be.

The tapestry of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is woven together, unable to be separated…eternal. Did you know that Jesus was active in Creation? In John 1, we find that nothing that has been created could have been created without Jesus, the Word of God. Nothing. Without Jesus, nothing we know could be.

Mary’s carrying and delivering of Jesus purely birthed the Savior into His redemptive role as Messiah. But oh, He has been with God throughout the ages. God had you and me on His mind way before Creation, and His plan for Jesus on earth was specifically used to reveal His plan for our redemption. As a result of Jesus’ completed work on the cross, and His resurrection, Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, in victory over death. Through our relationship with Him, we too have victory over the sting of death! Can you imagine the magnitude of this truth? It is simply breathtaking.

Why bring this up at Christmas? We need to live as big-picture Christians. We can’t meander through our lives from one spiritual “dot” to the next, never connecting them to celebrate the whole view of our spiritual walk. We would do well to live in light of the entirety of the gospel, praising God for each event, while being mindful not to separate the plan of God into bite size, unrelated pieces.

Christmas is humanity’s way of recognizing the birth of Christ. Naturally, this would make the celebration of Christmas our way of remembering Jesus’ birthday. On the surface, birthdays are for cake, presents, and celebrations. We check all these blocks each Christmas, don’t we? Presents given to all our friends and loved ones; cookies baked with care for those we want to share the season with. We endure way too many office parties, neighborhood get-togethers and church programs. But birthdays are also a time for reflection; not just for the day of birth, but for all the accomplishments, milestones, and triumphs of the life we recognize.

Think about a child’s first birthday: the first cake, first milestone.
Sixteen: the driver’s license.
Twenty-one: legal age.
Now, ponder those who have walked this earth much longer than we.
Eighty, ninety, even one hundred years of age: oh, the wisdom of a life long lived.
So much to impart on the next generation!

Let’s draw that connection back to the thought of Jesus.
The Messiah, our Savior.
The One who was, and is, and is to come!

We need only look in Scripture to read the ways He has been foreshadowed in the Old Testament, how He walked among us two thousand years ago, and how He will be the path to our victory in the future. How much more we have to celebrate than his manger-laying scene. The spiritual milestones we have in Christ Jesus are simply overwhelming. The reason for celebration, remembrance, and giving is precious.

We have victory unspeakable to celebrate!

This Christmas, I have a challenge for us all. Each time we see a babe in a manger, whether a plastic participant in yard art, designed on the front of a card, depicted in an ornament, or involved in a church scene, let us be reminded of our victory. Praise God for His gift of eternal salvation. Jump for joy that we are not merely celebrating a baby’s birth. You don’t have to wait until spring’s empty tomb display to celebrate the triumph we have through Jesus! Let that vision of the child transform into the victorious Savior within your spirit. May you shine the light that comes from Him ever brightly…bringing hope to those who cannot see His role as Redeemer.

Rejoice!