It's a Boy!

I want to invite you to join me on a couple of journeys. They won’t take long and you won’t have to really go anywhere. We are going back in time.

 

Our first trip is to a day about 40 years ago. We are going to a small farm in Jessamine County Kentucky. It is a beautiful fall day. The trees are just beginning to turn and the sky is an amazing blue. The day started off all badly and ended up being one of the most significant days in my life. This particular autumn, September in fact, I was entering my final year of seminary. Early that morning the phone rang and I fell down the stairs rushing to answer it. I was excited and in a hurry to answer it because I thought it might be my mother calling. I was in a hurry, not because it was my mother, but because of the news she might have for me.

 

At that time my wife and I lived in a converted slave house on a farm outside of Wilmore, Kentucky. We were far from our doctor and familiar hospitals. My wife, extremely pregnant at the time with our first child, had gone to live with my folks so she would be near our doctor and hospital of choice when the time came for delivery. It was, in fact, my mother on the phone and it was, in fact, time. She told me that they were heading out the door to the hospital. I had a two hour drive and was afraid I wouldn’t make it in time. I need not have worried since my wife was in labor for over 12 hours.

 

My next memory is of sitting in a dark waiting room listening to the click, click of knitting needles do their work in the dark. It was like marking time with a metronome – like listening to a click track in my ear while working with a worship team. I had been “banned” to the waiting room, as all fathers were. Those were the old days before birthing a baby became a spectator event. It was before bleachers were erected in the delivery rooms, video cameras were brought in and entire families and close friends were invited in to view the birth. Forty years ago, fathers were banished to waiting rooms, told to sit down and shut up and wait for updates from the action central. So there I sat for hours with my mother listening to her knit (which she did all the time – and I mean ALL of the time.) and waiting.

 

Finally Dr. Cox came in and announced, “It’s a boy!” I was thrilled. The same doctor who had delivered me had delivered my son. I was ecstatic. And I was clueless.

 

Let’s take another trip a little further back in time. This trip is to a day a couple of thousand years ago. A guy named Joseph had the same experience as I. Only his was a little different.

 

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)

 

When the time for Joseph’s child to be born he had not been banished to a dark waiting room deep in a local hospital. Instead, he was with Mary during the birth. Instead of a doctor announcing the news to him, he was probably the first to exclaim to the world “It’s a boy!” And just like me, in that amazing moment when he first held his son, his heart nearly exploded with love. It makes no sense, but the almost universal response to holding your child is a most powerful love. I guess that is the way God made us. The other response that Joseph shared with me and all other fathers was that he was clueless. We all think, “What was anybody thinking putting me in charge of this amazing and helpless little creature. Don’t they know that I don’t know what I am doing? This could end badly.” The story continues.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:8-20 (NIV)

 

The story continues to describe another commonality among birth stories. What is the first thing we do after the birth of a child? We spread the news! A most amazing, life changing event has happened and we want everyone to know about it.

 

I got on the phone and called my in laws, my brothers and sisters and my best friends. I wanted them to know the best and most exciting news in the history of humankind. I had a son. My story is set in a time before cell phones. Back then we made things called “collect calls.” Since long distance calls were expensive, we poor folks reversed the charges so the people we were calling could absorb the cost. Thus, collect calls. When one placed such a call, you contacted the Operator who asked for all the pertinent information and then asked you to record who the call was coming from. Then the people being called could decide if they wanted to pay for the call to be completed. To avoid the charges, we often beat the system by using codes. Thus, my in laws heard this: “Will you receive a collect call from, ‘The eagle has landed.’” They refused the call but knew they had their first grandchild.

 

In a rather universal response, the first thing God did was spread the news. God, being God, did it in a big way. First, he sent an angel which absolutely scared the “begebers” out of the recipients of that great news. He followed that up with a huge, heavenly choir of angels. I believe the audience for the announcement is significant. That audience was a bunch of shepherds. The news was delivered to some of the lowliest people in that society. Doesn’t it say important things about us and about God and about Jesus because God did not send the angels to the kings and world leaders of that time? God did not even send the messengers to the mayor of Bethlehem. Instead, he chose to announce the birth of His Son to plain old people. People like you and me.

 

His news was: It’s a Boy!! But is is much more than that. It’s a boy and it’s a savior!! It’s a boy and it’s the King of Kings. It’s a boy and it’s the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. It’s a boy and it’s the Messiah. It’s a boy and it’s Emmanuel – God with us. It’s a boy and it’s our Savior.

 

This is awesome news. What should our response be? SPREAD THE NEWS!!!

 

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved