A Baby Changed the World

Babies have a way of changing lives. They have with us this year. It had been 23 years since we'd had a baby in our immediate family and God blessed us with two this year.

This Christmas season I begin thinking about babies that caused changes.

The first mention is Genesis 4:26 after Enosh was born to Seth it says, "Then men began to call on the name of the Lord." Babies have a way of causing parents to begin to look to the Lord for guidance and to steward the responsibility to raise the child given to them of the Lord.

Moses' birth immediately caused a change in Pharaoh's house and would eventually cause quite a change in his house and in every house of Egypt.

Samuel's birth also produced a response from the spiritual establishment of Israel and would later cause quite a stir as God used Samuel to help bring about change.

David's life was changed by an unnamed baby. But the birth and death of this son (II Samuel 12) caused David to give one of the greatest statements about death in the Old Testament: "...Now he is dead...I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

But the greatest "child" was the one Isaiah spoke of in 9:6 "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given..." This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 1: 18-25.

A child was born - but not just the product of the human race. This "child" came from another world. Every child born had its origination with God, but not a pre-existence with God - except in His mind. But Jesus was God's Son before He became the child to Joseph and Mary. Jesus came from Heaven to earth.

It is correct to speak of this season as "The Advent" because it is exactly what Jesus did. He came into the world. He was incarnated - God in human flesh.

This child changed the world spiritually, morally, politically, and every way you can image.

But how can this child change your life? The same way that He came into the world. We must be "born from above" (John 3:8). This birth in us must come from without us - from Heaven.

Would you be a Bethlehem today? or better still, would you be a Mary? Jesus can change your life if you would open your spiritual womb to the Holy Spirit's seed (Word of God) and let Him be born in you. This child will not be born of human effort or good deed, but by the Spirit.

When you watch a baby - you notice how each day they awake - it is a new day. And you ponder how "fresh" life is to them and how everything is a possibility to them. Babies are filled with such hope and life.

That same hope, wonder and life can fill you today- no matter how old you are if you will open your heart through repentance and faith to this Child.