Amazed by the Familiar

The older I get, the more I appreciate nostalgia. Guess that’s how it’s supposed to work. The more memories you have, the more you can appreciate them.

And there’s nothing like the warmth of familiar Christmas memories this time of year – memories of childhood and of family. It reminds me how often God speaks through the familiar, the common, to amaze us all over again.

Consider the familiar Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke. The angel appears to the shepherds watching over their sheep at night and proclaims,

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

To these lowly shepherds, the angel says “Unto you is born”. This message was not given first to kings or clergy, but to shepherds – to lowly shepherds out in the field with their flocks. All through the Nativity story, we see God choosing the humble, the weak, the rejected, and the familiar in society to proclaim the wondrous news of Christ’s birth.

The angel said this good news would be for “all the people”. Salvation is no longer limited to Israel, but is for every country, every race, every culture, every walk of life. The walls of division have come down. This truly is good news for the world.

And the good news of great joy is this: the Savior has come. Not just for the world, but He has come to save you.

Then the angel told the shepherds how they could go and see for themselves this wonderful sight.

“And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

They would find a baby in a barn, wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough made for animals. Now the shepherds were familiar with barns, so they were going back to something familiar – to surroundings that were not new to them. But what they would find there was anything but familiar.

The Christmas story reminds us that God humbled Himself and became a man. God used the lowly of the world to proclaim His glory. And God used the familiar to introduce what had never been before.

It’s easy to hear the story of Jesus and let it become too familiar. Most Christians have a story of when they heard the gospel for the first time, and the joy and clarity and hope that came upon them. And I love to hear those stories. But we should also share those stories when we heard the gospel clearly for the hundredth time, or the thousandth time, and joy and hope flooded our souls all over again.

When you hear the good news of the gospel preached, or when you hear it in the Christmas carols being sung, or when you read it in the Bible, does your heart still leap with joy? Sometimes, mine does not. Sometimes the message of the gospel isn’t good news of great joy.

Those are the times I need to go back and see for myself. Like the shepherds, we need to go back to something we may have seen a hundred times, and we need to see it again – as if for the first time. We need to pray for fresh eyes to see and hearts that will be moved again.

And we need to go back to that hill called Calvary and look upon the One nailed to the cross for us. We need to see the love and grace that poured from those wounds and be reminded of the great price Jesus paid for us. And in that familiar place, we will be compelled to kneel – and to worship.

Consider afresh the great love He has for you. That’s why He came, because of His love for you. Receive that good news today, and your familiar Christmas will be one to remember.