What if?

[morningrain]

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Jimmy Stewart plays the character of George Bailey in the Christmas Classic, "It's a Wonderful Life". The movie starts with George as a young man and focuses on his accomplishments. As he grows up he takes a wife, they have four children, and he grows somewhat successful in business. It is as if for a while he has the ideal life until calamity strikes. His cousin Billy accidentally hands over a bank deposit folded up in a newspaper with no way to account for the money. At this point George's life takes a dramatic turn for the worse. Through a series of events, he finds himself saying to his guardian angel, "I wish I had never been born". Clarence the angel capitalizes on the moment and proceeds to show George what life would have been without his presence. He shows George the gravesite of his brother who had drowned at the age of seven because George was not there to save him. He shows him his wife who had grown up to be an old maid having never married. He found his children non-existent has he frantically scaled the condemned building he once knew as his home. After seeing all these events, George becomes extremely grateful for what He has. It no longer mattered that the money was gone or that he was facing jail time or bankruptcy. All that mattered when he came to his senses was that he had a beautiful wife and four children, a living brother and had been instrumental in the betterment of many other lives.

What if Christ had not been born, where would we be today? Assuming that our posterity did survive we would live with an antagonizing anguish in our souls as well as a gnawing emptiness so great that nothing could ever satisfy. If Christ had not been born, we would never have had the privilege of making Heaven our home. No other birth in history has so drastically affected so many others as the birth of Christ. If Jesus had not been born, we would have long ago drowned in the vast sea of sin with no one to rescue us. If Christ had not been born, humankind would have already become extinct. It is Christ who has guarded us and protected us over the years. It is because one night in the little obscure town of Bethlehem a Savior was born that we can have a wonderful life. It is the Birth of Christ that all other births have been contingent. It is His birth that gives life to all. No matter the trials we may face the most important thing is the birth of our Messiah. In the face of all calamities, it is still a "Wonderful Life" because Jesus is in it.

Where would we be today if Jesus had not been born?


Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

A Todays Word by Sue West

[mlg]

AMEN!