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.

Perhaps the hardest part about children is their inability to communicate. Yes, babies cry, a lot, but that cry could mean one of a dozen different things: I’m tired, I’m uncomfortable, I need to be changed, I need to be burped, I’m hungry, I want you to put me down, I want you to pick me up, etc. etc. I remember going through a “liturgy” with each of my children when they were crying newborns. Pick them up and rock them; if that doesn’t work, try and burp them; if that doesn’t work, check their diaper; if that doesn’t work give the baby to Amanda so they can eat; if that doesn’t work, despair.

When I was a kid, I remember hearing a story during a Christmas Eve sermon that gets at this type of beating-my-head-against-the-wall despair.

There was a man who stayed home while the rest of his family went to the Christmas Eve worship service. He was reading a book and sitting in his chair when he heard a knock at the window. He looked out but couldn’t see what had caused the noise so he went back to his book, but then just a moment later, he heard another loud knock.

He got out of his chair to get a closer look when another loud knock came from the window. This time, the man realized what was happening. Birds were crashing into the window. The man tried turning off the lights in the room but birds continued to fly into the window. So, he went outside and tried scaring them away but had no success.

Finally, in desperation, the man was shouting, at the flock of birds, “Stop what you are doing! Don’t you realize that you’re just hurting yourself!” Then he said to himself, under his breath, “I just wish I could become a bird, so that I could help them stop this self-destructive behavior.” At that moment, the church bells rang signaling the end of the Christmas Eve service…

God becomes a human being in the person of Jesus to show us how to live. For thousands of years God sent prophets and judges and kings to try and guide God’s people, but finally, God had to become a human being in order to show us the way.

INVITATION:  Take time to talk with God about some of your self-destructive behavior and decisions. How might Jesus be trying to show you a better way to live?