We are the Place Where You’re Born
The very first Christmas was Jesus being born unto the world. Every Christmas after, is Jesus being born in us.
As we anticipate and wait in these Advent days, we are preparing for his birth – not only in a manger, but in hearts and homes. Jesus being born into our sin. Jesus being born into our brokenness. Jesus being born into our relationships. Jesus being born into the work of our hands, the words of our mouth.
This is no ordinary birth. It’s not the kind that marks first breath. It’s the kind that brings forth new life.
What does it look like for God’s life to be born in us?
It’s vulnerable, humbling. And it’s only done through grace. But to welcome Christmas, to prepare for the coming of Jesus, you must receive him into your life. Particularly, your sin. Sin was the reason for his coming; the broken reality that caused need for a savior. It’s the part of Christmas we’re less likely to talk about. It’s easier to celebrate the birth of a baby than it is to recognize the sin he came to redeem.
But this is Christmas: Welcoming God into your broken world.
Suddenly the shopping seems pointless. The Christmas decorations, unnecessary. The man in a red suit, confusing. Gifts that we open, sort of silly. What do they have to do with Christmas other than years of cultural tradition and consumer hype?
But our family still participates. With less commitment than prior years, we will join our culture in its traditional celebrations. We really love this holiday and embrace this season with so much joy. But we refuse to let these activities distract us from the real moment of Christmas. We reject the enemy’s successful attempt to make a smoke screen out of the Christmas consumer culture, masking the divine moment that deserves our entire attention.
And so we find our hearts turning. Turning from what our flesh desires, and looking to what our Lord is giving us — an opportunity to celebrate his miraculous dwelling in man. The God who formed mankind, entered this world through mankind. And he continues to be born in us.
What does this mean to you? What does it mean for Jesus to be born into your life? I don’t ask this rhetorically. I challenge you to seriously consider this important thought because it’s the entire foundation for Christmas.
If God’s life is born into your life, how does it change you? What is the transformation that comes with his life? What does it do to your sin? Your choices? The way you relate to people? How does it change the hard realities you face?
There’s a way to consider this “generally” and there’s a way to have it specific to your present reality. What does it mean for Jesus to be born into your current brokenness? Right now, this year, with the things you are struggling with. Have you wrestled with a particular sin? Have you experienced distance in a relationship? Did a situation not turn out how you had hoped? Did you lose your job? Have you been weakened by illness? What does it look like to invite God into these hardships? What truth does Jesus bring to the lies you are believing? What comfort does he promise? What is the promise land he is leading your wandering soul to?
Or what about your successes? How can you welcome Jesus into the things you are doing well? Into your accomplishments? Into your healthy relationships? When Jesus is born into your victories, what does it look like? How can you bring him glory in these things? How can you commit them more completely to him?
Being able to recognize how the birth of Jesus collides with these realities is crucial for experiencing Christmas new every year. For each year we need Him differently. Each year, we celebrate Him in new ways.
This is our very favorite story of one community experiencing Christmas new. We read it every year.
God delivering himself among {and in} his created people is something worthy of praise. Sacrifice. Commitment. Celebration. And it doesn’t begin with tinsel and lights.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with openness. An honest dialogue between you and God. Prayer.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with confession. Identifying the sin that hinders his conception of life in you.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with repentance. Recognizing and grieving how your sin has prevented you from faithfully engaging God and your community. Then turning away from this sin to embrace more of Him, less of you.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with humility. Submission to the ways of God. A laying down of your life, so his can be born in you.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with receiving. A heart willing to welcome Jesus and his redemptive reality. His light that pierces your darkness. His truth that gives you hope.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with giving. The giving of your resources to participate in God’s redemptive work. For in this kind of giving, God’s life is born in others through you.
Christmas (God being born in you) begins with sacrifice. Denying the things that feed your flesh during this season, in order that your spirit might awaken to the moment when eternity became its hope.
Through these divine opportunities, true celebration will emerge. God’s life will conceive in you. Authentic Christmas will be born.
Pray for God to help you discern what it is you need to welcome Jesus into this Christmas. Pray that as a family or community, you help each other work through your brokenness, free of judgment, full of grace. For the church is the place where Jesus is born. Your home is the place Jesus is born. YOU are the place where Jesus is born.
