Unto You a Saviour
29
Departing with great joy, they made known the things they had seen
and heard. “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which
were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and
pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God.”
Heaven and earth are no wider apart today than when shepherds
listened to the angels’ song. Humanity is still as much the object of
heaven’s solicitude as when common men of common occupations
met angels at noonday, and talked with the heavenly messengers in the
vineyards and the fields. To us in the common walks of life, heaven
may be very near. Angels from the courts above will attend the steps
of those who come and go at God’s command.
The story of Bethlehem is an exhaustless theme. In it is hidden
“the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.”
Romans 11:33
. We marvel at the Saviour’s sacrifice in exchanging the
throne of heaven for the manger, and the companionship of adoring
angels for the beasts of the stall. Human pride and self-sufficiency
[49]
stand rebuked in His presence. Yet this was but the beginning of
His wonderful condescension. It would have been an almost infinite
humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam
stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when
the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every
child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law
of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His
earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows
and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life.
Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of
God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He
hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet
into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son
to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He
permitted Him to meet life’s peril in common with every human soul,
to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk
of failure and eternal loss.
The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into
the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life’s peril. He
longs to shield his dear one from Satan’s power, to hold him back from
temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful