Newborn cries are a welcome relief to parents and caregivers alike when a baby is delivered into the world. A collective inhale and a sigh of exhale accompany the mother’s final push, but not before the baby takes his first breath. The whole room is waiting expectantly, and if anything prevents that all-important gasp, immediate action is required.
Two baby boys are expected to join our family in the new year. The parents are seasoned veterans now, knowing what to expect from the birth of their firstborns. Mothers share details with each other- things we wish had gone differently and things we hope will be the same. One daughter had a scheduled induction and a quick delivery. The other labored all day and ended up with a c-section. Both babies came into the world in different ways, but praise God, both arrived safe and sound.
At Christmas, we remember the birth of Jesus. We can only imagine the delivery, who was present, how long Mary labored, if Joseph fainted or was the first to hold the son of God. One thing we know for certain, infant cries accompanied His birth, same as every other living child. His cry shattered the four hundred year silence of the Father.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-5, 9-14 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.1.1-14.ESV
New birth. It’s a beautiful thing though not at the precise moment of delivery. There’s suctioning and cleaning, cord clipping, and repairing mother before the moment is picture perfect. The same is true of our spiritual birth. It is the most beautiful thing, and it happens in a truly miraculous way, but the act of delivery was horrifying beyond description. Mary’s heart, having treasured up all those things from Christ’s birth to the cross, surely must have been broken and poured out before resurrection day arrived. Only because Jesus is alive forever can we experience new birth, abundant and eternal life in the presence of our Heavenly Father, restoration and renewal, salvation, love, joy, and peace. Only in Christ is our story complete.
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/eph.2.1-9.ESV
Our new lives in Christ come with good works prepared for us as God’s workmanship. Other translations render us God’s creation, God’s handiwork, God’s masterpiece. Of all creation, only we were created in the image of God and declared by the Trinity very good. Only we were created for companionship with God and given the ability to fellowship with other of God’s image-bearers. Destined for Christlikeness, we tread the broad path to destruction until we find in Him the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (Romans 8:29, Matthew 7:13, John 14:6)
“for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/2co.5.7.ESV
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:16-17, 25 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/gal.5.16-25.ESV
“I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/gal.2.20.ESV
“What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:1-11 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.6.1-11.ESV
We are a people with eyes twice opened. Once in the garden and once at the cross. Once we knew only good but we wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. We were deceived and darkness fell like lightning from heaven. We were cut off from our Creator and from the fellowship for which we were made until Christ came, born of a woman, indwelling flesh, to open the eyes of the blind.*
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”
Isaiah 9:2 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/isa.9.2.ESV
“Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King””
~Charles Wesley, 1739
https://youtu.be/jsinjDvpKQY?si=G0eBrH3W-HAi-LY2
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing | Hymnary.org
(*Teaching from Kristi McLelland THE GOSPEL ON THE GROUND The Grit & Glory Of The Early Church In Acts, copyright Lifeway Press reprint 2022)
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