Unto Us!
Dan Kunz
If you’ve ever gone through the experience of having a baby and announcing that birth to the world, it’s one of the biggest, most exciting things which parents go through. Even if you’re not the parent, it’s a big deal. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even friends can share in the excitement! My wife and I always made our own announcements to mail out, and we tried our best to make them cute, clever, and memorable. For example, because my wife was a cheerleading coach and our daughter went along to practice at an early age, we made the announcement of our second daughter in the form of a “cheer”, done by our first daughter. When our fourth daughter was born, the announcement followed a poker theme – we had four of a kind! It was fun and people appreciated the unique ways that we shared our big news.
Of course, our attempts to announce our big news, were nothing compared to God’s birth announcements for his Son! His actually started hundreds, and in some cases, thousands, of years before the actual event. My favorite is Isaiah’s announcement, about seven hundred years before the actual birth of Jesus. Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isn’t that amazing! God was so excited about his plan to rescue us from a disaster of our own making, that he began to tell us about it long, long before he enacted it. He loved us so much, he just couldn’t wait to tell us about it!
Most birth announcements contain all the pertinent information about the child, name, birthdate, weight, length, who the parents are, who the siblings are, and so on. God, because he’s God, goes way beyond that. He doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ weight and length but tells us way more important information – who the father is (himself), who the mother is (a virgin named Mary), the child’s name (Jesus, Wonderful, Counsellor, etc.), and then, something no normal birth announcement can do, he tells us what the child would grow up to become. Luke 2:8-10 But the angel said to them, “Listen! Do not fear. For I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find the Baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” This child, born in a manger in the town of Bethlehem, would be the Savior of the world! This time the announcement was made by angels to a group of lowly shepherds, but as the angel said, the announcement was intended for all people. That includes you and me! It’s always somewhat of an honor to receive a birth announcement from a proud and happy couple. God loved us enough to send a Savior and to make sure that we knew that the “big event” had happened!
As you celebrate the birth of our brother and Savior, Jesus, whether it’s with family and friends or all by yourself, far from home, remember who that child is and what he did for you and me. Our Heavenly Father was thinking of you when he had Isaiah, Luke, and a multitude of others announce that birth. He was thinking of you when sent his only Son to live a perfect life and die a perfect death so that you might celebrate eternally with him and that Savior baby born in Bethlehem so long ago!