12 Days of Christmas by Pastor Nate
December 28, 2023

This devotional series has 12 entries intended to carry through the Liturgical season of Christmas. I searched my memory and surveyed a bunch of parents to come up with twelve actual thoughts we had during our first days as parents. Perhaps these are also thoughts Mary or Joseph had during those first few days in Jesus’ infancy.

The world as I once knew it is forever changed.

After the birth of your first child, there are so many adjustments that must be immediately made to your life. There’s no longer time for all your previous hobbies and get-togethers. No longer can you spontaneously meet up with friends after work; everything has to be carefully scheduled and planned ahead of time because there is a new person in your life who is entirely dependent upon you.

The birth of a child changes your world. It ends a previous way of life and begins a brand new way of life. There’s a term for this in the Bible, it’s a term that’s been misused quite a bit: apocalypse.

When I say that, I’m guessing you’re thinking about The Apocalypse, when the world ends and Jesus comes again and there are lakes of fire and all sorts of other stuff that looks really good in Hollywood movies. But the truth is, an apocalypse is simply a drastic changing. A clear moment when one reality ends and a new reality begins. In this sense, the birth of a child is apocalyptic. Your life is never the same again.

And on a much grander scale, the birth of Jesus was also an apocalypse. The world was absolutely never the same after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Here we are, 2000 years later, still talking about this one birth!

INVITATION: Take time to journal or just think about how the birth of Jesus has changed your life. How would your life be different if you never heard about Jesus?