As we rest from the hustle and bustle of Christmas, and like the shepherds, wonder what it is all about, I bring you a few words from Harry Reasoner, the TV news commentator:

The basis for the tremendous annual burst of gift buying, and parties and near hysteria is a quiet event that Christians believe actually happened a long time ago. You can say that in all societies there has always been a mid-winter festival and that many of the trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan. But you come back to the central fact of the day and the quietness of Christmas morning – the birth of God on earth.

It leaves you only three ways of accepting Christmas.

One is cynically, as a time to make money or endorse the making of it. One is graciously; the appropriate attitude for non-Christians who wish their fellow citizens all the joy to which their beliefs entitle them.   And the third, of course, is reverently.

If  this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of the universe in the form of a helpless baby, it is a very important day. It’s a startling idea, of course. My guess is that the whole story that a virgin was selected by God to bear His Son, as a way of showing His love and concern for man, is not an idea that has been popular with theologians.

It’s a somewhat illogical idea, and theologians like logic almost as much as they like God. It’s so revolutionary a thought that it probably could only come from a God that is beyond logic, and beyond theology. It has a magnificent appeal.

Almost nobody has seen God, and almost nobody has any real idea of what He is like. And the truth is that among men the idea of seeing God suddenly, and standing in a very bright light, is not necessarily a completely comforting and appealing idea. But everyone has seen babies, and most people like them.  If God wanted to know His people as well as rule them, He moved correctly here, for a baby growing up learns all about people.   If God wanted to be intimately a part of man, He moved correctly, for the experiences of birth and familyhood are our most intimate and precious experiences.

So it comes beyond logic. It is either all falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world.

It’s the story of the great innocence of God the baby – God in the form of man – and has such a dramatic shock toward the heart that if it is not true, for Christians, nothing is true.

So, if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some final quiet morning, the touch will take.

Amen.