What kind of welcome does a royal child receive? William and Kate will soon welcome their third child, you know. And just let me say they make beautiful children, don’t they? They’re adorable. And the whole world seems to be waiting in great anticipation for this next special birth.
I’m not privy to the secrets of the royals, but I can imagine there will be a royal doctor on call for the birth. I imagine there is a royal nanny waiting in the wings. I imagine the precious baby will be placed in a royal nursery, appointed with the best of everything.
Queen Elizabeth has been Queen of England as long as I can remember. She is the world’s queen, it seems. The president, even a great one, is just not the same as someone with a royal lineage, who reigns on a throne, who has supreme authority. Other queens exist in the world, of course, but no one who has reigned so long or who is as well-known and recognized throughout the world.
So this newest baby, Queen Elizabeth’s great-grandchild, will receive all the frills and the honor and the care a royal newborn should have. His or her picture will be sought after, and the world will collectively smile at the first sight.
But at this time of year, I can’t help but contrast this reception with the birth of the greatest King ever born. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in a stable, placed in a manger, and swaddled in nothing more than rags. No pomp. No ceremony. Instead, animals witnessed his birth.
What humility. And the humility in the manner of His birth paled in comparison to the fact of His birth—that God’s precious Son humbled Himself to be born as a man is something no one can ever truly fathom. That He would do this to provide a way to the Kingdom of God speaks to the importance this salvation has to the Triune God—the Father who chose His people, the Son who redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit who called them and regenerated them, and by so doing, demonstrates the greatest miracle of all. He changes hearts of stone, turned against Him continually, into hearts of flesh, who now long for His glorious appearing.
I didn’t send out Christmas cards this year, so let this suffice as my way of reminding you of our tremendous gratitude for that Savior’s birth, as well as wishing each of you a Merry Christmas filled with warmth, peace and love, enjoying the festivities while never forgetting the Reason for them.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Philippians 2:5-11.
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