I’ve heard the story of a three year old who jumped up and down with glee when her aunt visited at Christmas time. She grabbed her aunt’s hand and led her to the nativity set the child and her mother had just set up. “Look! Look!” she exclaimed with excited pride.

Her aunt asked the child “What is that?”

With a very big girl attitude the three year old replied, “It’s breakable!”

Breakable. Fragile. The child’s answer is wise. The Christmas of faith is so fragile and breakable. So many forces seem to compete in distracting us. Retailers call this time the shopping season, where often their profitability for the entire year is determined. The watchdogs of politically correctness call it the winter holiday season. Others see it as the social focal point of the year.

Christians call these days leading up to the celebration of Christ’s birth Advent. People of faith value Advent as a time to reorient and focus on the marvel that God actually came into our world as a tiny baby so we might be saved. Grasping that holy truth is a precious yet fragile insight.

Jesus was so much like us. He was breakable. Vulnerable. He came into a world of broken people knowing that the only way to bring healing was to be broken himself. On the cross he made it possible for breakable people like you and me to be redeemed, made whole, and to live as God’s people. He then empowers us so we can help other broken people find wholeness.

It’s funny that a delicate, fragile baby can turn out to be the strongest person the world has ever known. It’s paradoxical that the vulnerable infant turns out to be the invincible Savior. It’s incredible that the little child of the nativity turns out to be the the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. But that’s the truth of Advent. Jesus Christ came to earth. Christ the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the universe came to live here that first Christmas so we who live here this Christmas can experience life in a new way. Let us use this Advent season to prepare ourselves, to let God prepare us, so that our faith might be strong and unbreakable. And be sure to share some of the same excitement of the three year old as we show others the nativity.

Jon Dale Hevelone
Pastor