BEING LED TO BETHLEHEM

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His Name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (Isa 9:6-7)

Where is the “peace” and “order” and “justice” that our Savior was to establish by His “government,” which is to “increase” with “no end,” as Isaiah prophesied? It is all here in Him, Who remains in our midst. Jesus Christ continuously offers Himself to us, both as Child and Father. As a Child, He is born unto “us” as the Church Mother, in which each of us receives Him in our own “womb” and then gives birth to Him, shares Him, in our own place and time. As a Father, He challenges us with the power or “authority” to become His children, as John the Evangelist says: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn 1:12-13)

This is all a life-long process and adventure, the whole business of being born, and of giving birth, as God empowers us to do. He invites us to participate in this “increase of His government and peace,” – a project that will have “no end” either here or in the hereafter. As the great feast of our Lord’s Nativity nears, let me let myself be led to Bethlehem, so I don’t miss out on the greatest adventure to which God invites me. I am both to be born again of, and give birth to, the Wonderful. “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.”