This past week, I attended the funeral of Sgt. Teddy Ratcliff. I also went to quite possibly the best Christmas drama I have ever attended. Hold on, hold on...I'm getting to how all of this connects.
I'm critical (a little fact for those who aren't nodding or laughing right now). And, believe it or not, I have always been perturbed by "Silent Night" and the infant Jesus picture so heavily pushed at Christmas. Before I'm labeled a heretic, let me explain. Christ is not a baby in a manger anymore. On top of that, the night of His birth was not such a "silent night" after all (I will be posting on this later). I enjoy the picture and the story, but, to be honest, Him being a baby never quite hit home with me until this year. I love the picture of Emmanuel, God with us. And how He chose to lower Himself to come as a Saving Servant. But Him as a baby...I didn't get it.
But as I sat and listened to Cheryl Ratcliff, Sgt. Ratcliff's widowed wife, speak of her love story with her husband, I began to think. She said, "I can honestly say, he never raised his voice at me. Not once." She also shared about him making her lunch everyday and often leaving little love notes: "I've kept every one of them," she said through tears. I did not know you up close, save when I was too young to remember, but Sgt. Teddy Ratcliff, you make me want to be a better man. Not only that, but you helped me to remember Father God's love for me. Through all of my failures and shortcomings, God has never grown impatient with me, nor has He ever raised His voice. He has fed me daily, (even if it be through manna), and I can never lose, give up, or trade a single one of His love letters for anything. Even if I do, He will always keep every single one of mine to Him.
The day following the funeral, I went to a Christmas drama at a local church. The story centered itself around the relationship of a father and a son. Although the relationship was at odds, by the end of the drama, the father and son realized that both of them cared for each other. I know this sounds cliche and cheesy, but I promise you, I teared up more than five times during the production. I kept thinking about my own relationship with my earthly father. All of the fights, the regrets, the missed and failed opportunities, and the possibility that either one of us, like Sgt. Ratcliff, could leave this world at any moment. My lovely finance remarked, "I want to practice looking my parents in the face. Show them I love them. I don't want our last memory together to be a fight."
Dad, if you're reading this, I love you. That's all I've really got to say. I can't mend, neither can you, but that's what I learned about baby Jesus this Advent.
The Father, the Creator of the Universe, spoke and everything was. The One who controls it all, the LORD of Hosts, breathed out life and inhaled our earthly oxygen. My Jesus, You were so fragile! But in that little boy sat all of the secrets of the universe, all of the power, the honor, and the wisdom. Coming to reconcile. O beautiful night! O holy night! The manger gives the world the picture of the Father's love for us. Although Israel, God's chosen people, had betrayed Him, spat in His face, and played the harlot with other gods, God said, "I will reconcile." Although I, one of the many He died for to give life, have betrayed Him, spat in His face, and played the harlot with other gods, God says, "I will reconcile."
Through a baby...one who needs tender love and care. And He cradled Jesus. He protected Him. And the boy grew to be the perfect Man. Maybe Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, did things wrong. Maybe he hurt Jesus' feelings or spoke wrongfully to Him. We know from the Word that the village despised Him. They saw Him as the son of adultery, not the son of God. Even His friends denied Him in the end. But He loved. He showed mercy. He forgave. And He reconciled.
So maybe He's not a baby in a manger anymore...So what? He has certainly taught me about redeeming love. Don't get me wrong, I like "Stille Nacht" (the German "Silent Night") better because it sounds rougher; but He came as a baby, showed love to the despising and messed-up world, and continually teaches me to find the Silent Night of His presence in the midst of the midnight storm. All for the sake of reconciling the world.
"Silent night! Holy night! Son of God, love's pure light, radiant beams from Thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace--Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth."
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