Giving
Readings
Luke 2.1-3.20-And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn...This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger...So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.
Ezekiel 37-41-And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live...
Isaiah 60-62-Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
God's Word
I have given you a gift, wrapped in clothes and laid on wood. See, understand, accept the gift and the challenge.
Story
There I was that night. Sure I was united with the straw pitched on me to feed the animals, but little did I know what else I would be united with. You see, I was carefully constructed by a carpenter out of wood. Wood laid out in x's, kind of like two crosses and then joined by some supporting beams throughout the middle. And what lay on the middle was food to sustain the lives of the animals that were brought to me. The animals would feed from the food that I offered to them. They would feed from this food that I offered day after day. But that night, it was different. No one fed from the hay that was laid on me that night. Rather the hay became a cushion from my hard wood. A different kind of food was laid on my that night. They laid a boy wrapped in strips of cloth on me. This child seemed to be food for the universe. More than just food for the animals in the barn that night, but food that would feed the entire world. But the strips of cloths kind of made me think. My wood was an ancient wood. You know wood that is built into things can kind of transcend time in a way. So I thought about how the very same wood I was made from would later, in the time of the life of this child softly laying in the hay and the crosses that supported the beams filled with hay, would bring forth not comfort and peace in the life of this child, but pain and suffering.
Yet in another strange way, this brother of wood crosses of mine would also bring peace and relief from pain and suffering to all the people of this world. So here I was that night, a sign of peace and comfort and everlasting love, yet also a cross sign of death and suffering. I was stained in the black of death yet in the red of a blood that would bring life to the world. It was certainly a strange night that night. There I was, made up of some crossed wood, offering up the Savior of the world in a feed trough of love for all the world. So there I was that night, and there I would be again thirty years of nights later. Both nights with this child laying on me as I offered him up to feed the world. And later after I was done, they would wrap this Savior in cloth in a tomb, and then the greatest thing of all would take place. All on some crossed wood and some strips of cloth offered as a gift to all humankind. There I was that night...and it really made me think. I think I came to life that night. Some dead wood brought to life.
Prayer
Thanks! --- Amen
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