You’ve seen it. If you tossed a rock in the air and celebrated the pluming splash of water, you were witness to the growing circumference radiating out in a ripple. When you paused to watch a boat carve its way up the Ohio River, your eyes may have followed the ripples as they wiggled all the way to the shoreline. Canoeing or kayaking on a placid lake, the point of entry for your paddle may have drawn your attention and mesmerized you at length.
Christmas is coming. For many of us, the rhythm of daily life has been disrupted by the splashing preparation of the Advent season. The normal surfaces in our homes have been taken over by evergreen sprigs, strings of lights, and nativity scenes, as we anticipate the coming of Christ. In a few weeks, we will celebrate God bursting onto the scene, but long after December 25 has come and gone the realities of Christmas will linger.
Canadian poet and musician, Bruce Cockburn, captures these lasting effects of Jesus' birth as he recounts the story of God in his Cry of a Tiny Babe <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRZxrr4P9FE>.
Mary grows a child without the help of a man
Joseph gets upset because he doesn't understand
Angel comes to Joseph in a powerful dream
Says "God did this and you're part of his scheme"
Joseph comes to Mary with his hat in his hand
Says "forgive me I thought you'd been with some other man"
She says "what if I had been - but I wasn't anyway and guess what
I felt the baby kick today"
Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe
The child is born in the fullness of time
Three wise astrologers take note of the signs
Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king
Get pretty close to wrecking everything
'Cause the governing body of the Holy Land
Is that of Herod, a paranoid man
Who when he hears there's a baby born King of the Jews
Sends death squads to kill all male children under two
But that same bright angel warns the parents in a dream
And they head out for the border and get away clean
Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe
There are others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums
And the message is clear if you have ears to hear
That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear
It's a Christmas gift that you don't have to buy
There's a future shining in a baby's eyes
Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe
From Bruce Cockburn’s Nothing But A Burning Light ©1991
You might not see it or feel it, but that doesn’t mean that the promises of Jesus don’t ripple in and through our lives.
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Pastor Lowell