It's a Baby

            Tonight I am going to tell you a story of how God looked out of the Light with Love at the beautiful earth and how troubled it was.  Looking out of the Light with such Love, God wanted to show the humans how much God loved them.

             God thought and thought.  Then God decided NOT to send a great big angel saying, “God loves you!” but to really try to show that Love to each human, especially the little ones.

             Then God who is Light, who is Love, laughed, for God is Laughter too.  Because God figured out that God would send God’s Light and Love in a special way so even the humans, who sometimes aren’t very smart, would get the idea, would catch on.

             So God laughed and said, “I will send them a baby and then they will surely know how much I love them on the lovely earth.  I will send them a baby.”

              God who is Wisdom then had to figure out whether to send a baby girl or a baby boy.  God considered that for a long, long time, let me tell you, because God knew whichever God sent, some people were going to feel hurt and left out.

             God even thought about sending twins, you know, a boy and a girl.  But God decided the humans might think that God thought there were girl things and boy things and then the humans would never understand that the boy things and the girl things are in each of us.

             Each human likes to hold small things like babies or puppies and each human likes to catch a ball or run really fast – not boy things or girl things, but altogether in one person.  But I can tell you this, God thought about it for a long, long time because God figured that the humans might not understand right off.

             But God is Wise, God is Wisdom and God understood that the lovely earth was in trouble, so God had better send some good news soon.

             There were Herods, the bad kings not worrying about hungry people or sick people or little babies or rivers or trees or turtles.  God knew that the earth was in trouble and that God had better act fast to send the good news that God loves each human – babies and grandfathers, aunts and cousins and daisies and birds and turtles.

             God also knew in those days long ago that the humans on earth thought that girls had babies and cooked and washed clothes a lot and the boys tended to be shepherds or carpenters or lawyers, so God trusted that God’s Child would be so loving, so kind that humans would figure out that God loved little girls and little boys.

             But for that long time ago God had to send a little boy if God expected the child to get any attention at all two thousand years ago.  I need to tell you this now, two thousand years seems like a long, long time but it’s nothing when you think about dinosaurs or stars or two thousand years isn’t very long for God who has been around since the beginning.

             In any case, for none of us can be sure of what was going on in God’s wonderful mind, God decided that a teenage girl named Mary would have the baby.  That God’s own child would grow right inside Mary’s body.

             God would not put God’s baby under a lilac bush and say, “Here, come see my baby!”  God, loving us very, very, very much, decided that Mary, who was pretty young to be a mother, that this young female person would get pregnant and have a baby just like every other baby on earth is born.

             I think God thought that if God honored a female person this way, like she was going to have God’s own baby, maybe the humans would figure out that males and females, girls and boys are both part of the Love, the Light.

             So that’s what happened.  Mary got pregnant because God loved her so much.  God understood that Joseph; Mary’s husband would have to take over for God on earth.  You know, would have to teach the child about gardener snakes and frogs and stars.  Joseph would have to be the child’s father, just like everybody else’s dad, so that’s how it started.  Mary was pregnant and Joseph was loving and taking care of her.

             Then it turned out that just when the baby was to be born, they had to make a long trip.  Now actually, I think God planned it that way.  If they had stayed at home, Mary’s mother would have made a soft blanket for her expected grandchild and all the people in the neighborhood would have come over to admire the crib Joseph had built.

             But God in God’s Wisdom wanted the humans to know how much God loved everybody.  Even poor and homeless people.  So God arranged for God’s only child to be born in a stable, like a little barn, because, you see, that was the only place that Joseph and Mary could find to spend the night.

             And that was how it happened.  It was a poor place and some animals were standing around and Mary and Joseph were all alone.  I’m pretty sure Joseph held her hand during the hard parts of having a child.

             And He was born.  A baby.  On earth.  God’s own Child.

             And Mary held Him to nurse Him and to love Him.  And Joseph held Him to burp Him and to love Him and it was just the way God hoped it would be.

             God was so proud of this little family and that little Child, that God couldn’t hold in the Joy anymore, so the angels sang and the shepherds heard their song.  Then the shepherds came to the barn to seen what had made the angels sing right in the middle of the night.

             They went down the road with their scraggly sheep and when they found the family they said, “It’s a baby!”  And after that night, every time they saw a new baby, they remembered that night and that Baby.

             Some wise men, which is to say some very intelligent and curious persons, came from a long, long distance, because there was this huge bright star over the barn where the Baby lay.  When they arrived, they were tired, let me tell you, because it had been a long hard trip by camel.  When they finally came to the place with their beautiful presents, they exclaimed, “It’s a baby!”

             So each of us remembers on this night wherever we are, that God so loves the earth, God so loves us, that God sent a baby that would grow up just like us.  Mary had to change His diapers and Joseph has to rinse them out but they took turns, you know.

             The little Child learned to walk and He got scratched knees and bruises just like we do.  The little Child learned to talk because God wanted this Child to tell us that God is Love and that we, each one of us, is part of that Love, our lives are touched by that Love.

             It is hard to remember that sometimes when our dog gets run over or our uncle dies or when a sister and brother acts mean or mom or dad don’t seem to understand at all what is hurting inside.  When it is hard to remember God’s Love because we are hurting so much inside, God helps us by reminding us at Christmas what we sometimes forget over the year.

             God loves each of us.  God loves all of us.

             Maybe we could think of God tonight, rejoicing in Heaven just like that night in Bethlehem.  So maybe right now, we can think of shepherds and the scraggly sheep surprised to be awakened by angel voices.  Maybe we can think of the curious and wise persons who followed the star, and maybe tonight, right here in _________, we could look at the manger and say with Joy and Love, “It’s a baby!”  Can you do that?

             All of us together?  Can we laugh and rejoice and shout with God, with angels, with shepherds, with wise people, with all people, IT’S A BABY!