Luke 2: 11-12

Hi all, if you are following my blog you would have realised for the past few Saturdays I have been posting Christmas theme Bible study. Yesterday I forgot to post the Bible study though I posted lots of other stuff. So here is the Bible study. "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2: 11-12 Last Saturday in this Bible study I delved into the first part of the announcement by the angel which was I bring you good news of great joy. Today we can look at the second part of that same verse which is the announcement by the angel. What is the good news of great joy? The birth of a saviour in the city of David is the good news. The Saviour that is born is the Lord Messiah. A sign would be given to the shepherds. The sign is a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. The angel was essentially telling the shepherds that God has sent a baby to be our saviour and you can recognize the saviour because of this sign. What is the sign? The sign is a baby in a manger. The baby would be wrapped in swaddling cloths which are like blankets which we use today to wrap new born babies. There are two ideas in this that I was struck by. One is what we think about when we think of a saviour. We think of a mighty warrior. Knight in shining armor. Our version of a saviour. Maybe we don't think we need to be saved. Ensconced with love of family and friends, blessed by health, and wealth we don't feel we need to be saved. We don't understand what it means to be saved. Whether we think we need a saviour or not our saviour is a helpless baby lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths. How in the world will a baby ever save us, we might think. To understand that we only have to believe. That this heavenly baby is our saviour. The second aspect of this verse that struck me was as follows. The story of Christmas is the story of a helpless baby from heaven born into this earth and lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths. But so many people change the story. One day someone told me Christmas is a winter festival. Christmas is not a winter festival. Christmas is celebrated in a tropical land such as Kerala. And can be celebrated every where even in places where there is no winter. Sometimes we associate Christmas with things that we do to celebrate Christmas. We go shopping for gifts at Christmas time. But Christmas is not about sales in stores. During Christmas there may be many holiday office parties where we can wear holiday clothes to. But Christmas is not about parties. During Christmas we bake a lot and cook a lot and eat a lot of traditional food. Christmas is not about eating lots cakes and other Christmas sweets. What we do to celebrate Christmas is often mistaken as Christmas. Christmas is the birth of a heavenly baby on earth 2025 years ago. What can we meditate about as we think of this verse. We can thank God that the good news of great joy is the birth of a heavenly baby in a manger in Bethlehem. We can thank God that this heavenly baby is our Savior. We can worship this heavenly baby and prayerfully tell this saviour all our fears and worries. We can thank God that that baby is Messiah the Lord. We can thank God that the sign of Christmas is a heavenly baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger who is Messiah the Lord. The real story of Christmas is the story of the heavenly baby sent to earth lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes who is our saviour. Although it is difficult to wrap our mind around the idea of a heavenly baby as our saviour let us take a moment to reflect on this truth and take a moment to step back from what others say Christmas is and think about the true story of Christmas. We live in a world where miracles don't happen. We live in a rational world. Our world is hemmed in by predictable routines. We go to work at a certain time and come back at a certain time. We read newspapers to learn about government schemes and events in the world about national, international, sports, business and finance news. In such a world let us step back from the rationality, the routines, the predictability and the science and think of a miracle. An unusual event that defies rationality yet is gentle as a baby.