Jonathan Noble
Posts: 380
Joined: 7/20/2003
From: First Congregational Church
Status: offline
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He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts; he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows … one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard. Isaiah 53.2b-3, NJB
My father tells the story about walking around in downtown Columbus, Ohio during the Christmas season years ago and seeing all the beautifully wrapped packages in the storefront windows. They came in different shapes and sizes, with various styles of wrap and different colored bows … but all quite attractive, especially nestled as they were amid glamorous seasonal decorations.
One morning, however, he was walking by one of the storefronts where some employees were busy at work changing out the display scenery. As it happened, he got to see what was actually underneath the beautiful wrap of some of those enticing gifts… Nothing more than plain, old brown cardboard boxes with absolutely nothing inside!
Not that he necessarily expected anything else; he just hadn’t really thought about it at all until then. The beautiful wrap was merely for display, nothing more, and beautiful as it was it covered nothing of value … or, perhaps more appropriately, we should say it covered over emptiness.
You know what is really amazing is when we stop to consider that Jesus was born to a poor couple, who had to bed down in a stable with animals that night, and was swaddled and laid in a feeding troth to sleep. More than this, Isaiah tells us the Christ child – the Messiah – did not grow up to be an especially handsome man; in fact, he indicates just the opposite! Or, in other words, the Savior of the world did not come beautifully wrapped!
Children of royalty may have come beautifully wrapped. Sultans and sages, merchants and monarchs may have come beautifully wrapped. But not the Messiah, Jesus our Lord! The very Son of God lacked all the dazzle and glamour of outward wrappings – have you ever thought about this – but he definitely had, and has, something of infinite value to offer!
Not that wrapping is wrong, mind you, but often times the best wrapped people, or material possessions, in the world are also the emptiest – empty of real life, devoid of meaning and purpose, lacking in love and wisdom … you know, just empty! When you get past the shallow covering, no matter how stunning, what you see is kind of like an empty, old, brown box! Really, it’s nothing … nothing of value!
Not so our Lord Jesus, whose blessed birth we celebrate. He may not have had “form or charm to attract” the eyes of the world, no “(outward) beauty to win our hearts,” but Jesus came offering Life – that is, life full of purpose, life full of wonder, life full of meaning, life full of (yes) beauty, genuine beauty that never fades – and he offers the same gift still today. And, really, this gift needs no wrapping!
God bless you in the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord!
Blessings,
Jonathan Noble
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Since we have been called into unity through the Spirit and become members of the same body in Christ, let us keep the bonds of love unbroken. ~ St. Cyril of Alexandria
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