The Baby Who Turned The World Upside Down

Last updated on: December 24, 2016 at 11:26 am by Taylor S. Brown

"The Nativity" by Gari Melchers — “The Nativity” by Gari Melchers

The Christmas story is something we always run perilously close to loosing sight of in the midst of the holiday shuffle. We remember it to be sure. We love to see manger scenes all over our cities and towns. We love to “remember the reason for the season” by remembering and celebratign Christ’s birth.

But still, we often forget the import of the Word taking on flesh and dwelling among us. We forget why we really celebrate. For the Christmas story is the story of how God fundamentally upends the structures and powers that have enslaved His creation. The birth of a Galilean baby in a spare animal storage room in the little backwater town of Bethlehem marks the beginning of God’s invasion to liberate His world and humanity from death, sin, and evil. What a strange mercy this is. A baby who has turned the world upside down.

“THEY all were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high:
Thou cam’st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

“O Son of Man, to right my lot	5
Naught but Thy presence can avail;
Yet on the road Thy wheels are not,
Nor on the sea Thy sail!

“My how or when Thou wilt not heed,
But come down Thine own secret stair,	10
That Thou mayst answer all my need—
Yea, every bygone prayer.” – George MacDonald, “That Holy Thing”