Thirty years is a long time to wait to see what your Christmas Gift will actually do. It came with no instructions but with lots of promise. Kings journeyed far in order to see for themselves this Gift, and to bring gifts of their own in honor of this birth.
The people wanted a mortal savior, but their hero arrived as a baby and in danger of his own life. What could he do to help them against their enemy? They expected their savior to be a man among men and they would rally behind him. They wanted another David with a bag of stones.
Jesus did not have a bag of stones.
Suppose one of you has a friend who comes at night when the house has been closed and the doors have been locked, and everybody is sound asleep. He knocks on the door. He tells you that someone has just arrived at his house from a long journey and he needs some bread to feed them. Will you tell him that it is late at night and that the kids are in bed sound asleep, and to quit knocking at your door because he will wake up the whole household?
No, he gets up to stop the racket of the knocking, not because it is his friend at the door, but because he wants the knocking to stop.
The Christmas Gift says “I am not that way. Just ask and it will be given, seek, and you will find it, knock and it will be opened. What man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?”
“Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (paraphrased Luke 11:5-10 & Matt 7:5-12)
Father, we women and others who are oppressed, have travelled far and we are knocking at your door. We have been at the church house, but the doors are closed, and the people are inside sound asleep. We are your children and we are asking for a loaf. We have had the stones. We’ve been turned away by men for centuries, and now we are standing at Your door. Hungry for the bread and for a place at Your table.
Will you join in prayer to the Christmas Gift for the whole loaf?
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