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                 Have you ever felt the frustration of wanting to say something, but not knowing how to say it?  You have loved someone very deeply, and have sought the words to express that love, but never could find them.  You have shared the sorrow of a friend and have tried to tell him or her how much you cared.  But the words that you spoke did not begin to convey the sympathy that you felt.  Those who are parents have wanted to tell your child something about life something he or she desperately needed to know.  You tried to do that.  You used the best language at your command.  

                Human speech is a priceless gift.  It is one of the things that distinguish us from the animals.  We can share thoughts.  We can exchange ideas.  But for all its wonder, verbal communication has its limitations:  The inadequacy of words to say something but not knowing how to say it.

                Would it surprise you to learn that God Himself experiences the same frustration?  At the beginning of the Gospel of John, we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God.”  Its essential meaning is that God has always had something to say.  From the beginning of time, he has sought to share His thoughts and feelings with us.  But His problem has been the same as ours – the inadequacy of human words and the inability of human ears. 

                The writer to Hebrews continues: “In time past, God spoke in fragmentary and varied ways to our fathers through the prophets.”  That means God has never been able to say everything that He wanted to say.

                Then the Hebrew writer continues: “In this, the final age, He has spoken to us through His son… This son is the reflection of the Father’s glory and the exact representation of the Father’s being.”  That means God has finally broken through the communications barrier.  He has said everything He always wanted to say.  He has expressed His entire mind and heart, not in human language, but in a human life – the life of Jesus.

                Someone has called Christmas “that night of nights, when God walked down the stairway of heaven with a baby on His arm.”  That baby was the incarnation of divine truth.  God took everything He had tried to say since the beginning of time, wrapped it in human flesh, and placed it in Bethlehem’s manger.

                That, in a sense, is what Jesus is – a sermon we can see.  God is the preacher.  He has done more than point the way.  He has come to walk with us.  So open your eyes and heart and listen to what God is saying to you this Christmas 2020!