What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?

Christmas has meaning only if this day becomes our challenge to rebirth the Christ Child in our time and our culture. We open our hearts to receive Him anew and we open our hands to offer Him to the waiting world. This is the prayer we make this Christmas day.

Do not remember the former things, or consider the ways of old. -- Isaiah 43:18

This Christmas Eve 2007 is unique in history. We have never had it before. All the waiting now culminates in that goal we looked toward on Advent’s first Sunday. We turn our eyes again to Bethlehem which gathers the world to itself from a thousand roads and under myriad stars – for the birth of a Child. Let us go there too.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. -- Habakkuk 2:3

The closer we come to Christmas, the more the excitement mounts. It is time to confess that it (whatever that might be) will not get done as perfectly as we had hoped; someone will inadvertently be left off the Christmas card list; a gift will not be purchased. None of that ultimately matters. The coming of Emmanuel does. Let us focus on Him today.

Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. -- Isaiah 40:31

Each year the Christians of the world turn toward Bethlehem and use these days to renew their sense of who and why they are. The commercial world rates these days by sales, and the merchants spur us on with music. The spiritual world says, Pause. Renew your commitment. Redirect your heart toward the Child who is God’s love enfleshed. Which world do we hear more clearly today, the commercial or the Christian?

For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. -- Isaiah 60:2

These words come from centuries before the birth of Christ, but the dawn that is promised is one that gave courage to the prophets for ages. In the trust of God’s promises they waited even when the darkness seemed to dominate. In these short winter days, we could well revive that same gift of hope in our hearts as we await God’s coming anew into our lives.

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. -- Isaiah 55:6

The shepherds’ journey was easy. They were a field or two away, and they had both angelic music and an announcement. All they had to do was go. And they did. How do we compare with these rough but eager seekers? Because it’s easy do we wait until later or another day? If we see the shepherds as being called while they were in the midst of a night’s work, we might want to seek our God there where duty has placed us today.

Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the Lord has promised good to Israel. -- Numbers 10:29

Do you ever wonder if there were other magi who never began that starlit journey to Bethlehem? Were there other stargazers too afraid of tackling the unknown, too disinclined to seek a strange king in a far-off place, too unsure whether or not this star portended anything? It isn’t hard to imagine them because we have each done as they did, put aside our star-watching equipment with mutterings about the lens being cloudy or the road too uncertain. To what might God be inviting each of us today?

…being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. -- Romans 4:21

The role of Joseph is one for reflection. Matthew’s first chapter lays the full weight for the legal status and naming of this child squarely on Joseph’s shoulders. He not only accepts this role but carries it out courageously and faithfully. Those of us who waver, who don’t quite trust God to help us through our next quandary, need to become better acquainted with this man who is a rock of faith.

Nothing will be impossible with God. -- Luke 1:37

Elizabeth, wife of Zachariah, must have thought herself forgotten by God. She had no child and she was no longer young. And now she had a husband struck dumb and unable to explain why. All of this mattered little when life stirred within her and a new time of waiting began, one that would end only when she looked upon the face of little John the Baptist and truly knew that nothing was impossible with God. How far are we from such trust?

Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. -- Luke 1:45

Advent draws us into the richness of the Christmas story so this week we will spend time with each of the participants. Today, it is Mary, invited by God into this great adventure and able to respond with a “yes” of profound faith. In what ways can we imitate her firm confidence and her joyous assent? How do we need to bring these qualities into our lives today?