Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
The King received the gold. Our Intercessor took the frankincense. And the One who died on the cross had myrrh wrapped about His body by His friends. The magi’s gifts to Jesus pointed to the utterly unique, glorious, and sacrificial ministry of the Lord Jesus.
God the Son lowered Himself. He took on the flesh of an infant. He died a humiliating death. As a result, God the Father “highly exalted Him.”
Mary’s little Lamb was destined for sacrifice. But tonight she held her baby close, kissed His soft cheek...and wept quietly in the wonder of it all.
While Rome was busy making history, God arrived. The world didn’t even notice. Reeling from the wake of Alexander the Great...Herod the Great...and Augustus the Great, the world overlooked Jesus the baby.
Angels are at work today as well, relentlessly busy doing God’s bidding in the unseen world around us. If our eyes could be opened to see the angelic forces, we would be overwhelmed!
As for Samuel, the boy who heard God's voice, the closing words of this episode tell us that the sleepy, spiritual indifference that had lulled Israel into complacency was about to come to a screeching halt. A man of action was on the scene, and Israel's spiritual drift was about to end. Even as a little boy, he not only heard the Lord, but he obeyed His voice.
Nine months before that wondrous night in Bethlehem, the Father sent His Son. Christ willingly left His seat of absolute power in heaven, set aside the voluntary use of His divine authority, and became a helpless infant. As a human, subject to all the pains and sorrows and limitations that affect us all, He would mature, learn, minister, suffer...and die. If the Father was willing to release His own Son to us, what could be so much more precious to us that we would withhold it from Him?
This isn't a movie. As far as Abraham was concerned, the drama didn't have a surprise ending. The knife goes up in order to bring it down into his son's chest or across his throat, and what will happen next is the death of his boy. This is real! This is faith in the wild where the stakes are incredibly high—life and death!
Some of you parents may find yourselves in a similar situation as you read these pages. Your relationship with your child may have reached a point where you have no other choice but to commit him or her completely to God's care. You would love to work out the details, but you cannot. You know the Lord is good, and you have prayed for a resolution, but nothing has changed. Only God can intervene.
But I do know that when God does a transforming work in you that involves a trial, He's not testing other people; He's testing you. Because this experience is designed for you, it isn't necessarily required or even appropriate for you to share the whole story with everyone else. Or, for that matter, with anyone else. Occasionally, strength is mustered in keeping it to ourselves...completely.
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