A child is born. In so many ways he seemed just an ordinary child. His mother was just a young girl from a poor family. Her husband did a bit of carpentry when he could find the work. Unless an angel told you so you would never have guessed this baby was the Son of God.
So easily we see only the surface of things and people. We see the outside and are unaware of what the reality is that lies beneath. We use that word “just” to keep things ___ and people ___ unimportant. They are just one more poor family we say, He is just a baby; just one more homeless child.
Of course, he was not just a baby, was he? He was the Son of God. Would they have treated him differently if they had known. Surely if they had looked properly and seen that that poor young peasant girl and her husband were God’s chosen servants, they would have found somewhere better for them to stay than some old animal shelter. If they had known the newborn baby was the Son of God they would have found a proper bed for him instead of some feeding trough. Instead they just saw the surface, you see. They saw what was on the outside and it did not seem so special.
This is the other side of the Christmas story that frightens me. It is the other side from the tinsel and the glitter, the pretty angels and the Star-light. I think about that Baby in the Manger and wonder how they could have failed to recognise Him, and then I wonder if I too have sometimes failed to recognise Him in other places ___ and people. Have I used that word “just” to dismiss God’s children when I have looked on the outside, the surface, and failed to see what God wanted me to see?
After all, there are homeless children wandering the streets of Port Moresby. There are plenty of poor families needing shelter. There are babies being born that no-one seems to want. Do we care?
When God sent His Son into the world, to be born in poverty, homeless and unknown, it was a sign to us that He does care. God never says of any child, “It is just one more baby.”
Of course, they would have found a better place for the Son of God to stay, but they did not realise He was that important. The birth of Jesus Christ tells us that, to God, all the children are important; and if they are all important to Him they should be important to us. Will it really take an angel to make us see that all God’s children need our love?
God bless you
+Peter Fox.
Bishop of Port Moresby.
