The Last Telling of the Christmas Story, Part 3

Who are the woman’s offspring in Revelation 12? We read that the rest of her offspring are those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. The woman’s offspring are Christians.

This story is, as I have already suggested, a highly symbolic way of telling the Christmas story, the story of Christ’s birth to Mary. However, this story also contains a message, an application for us. I believe that message is that just as Mary gave birth to the Messiah, so we, the Church, must continue to bring forth Christ to the world.

How do we do that? How do we, as Christians, bring forth Christ to the world? I think we do it in the simple way we learned in preschool…Show and Tell. To bring forth Christ to the world we have to show him to the world in our lives and we have to tell about him with our lips.

John Trent tells this story….

When I led a Young Life group, I did my best to round up kids who really needed to hear the gospel when we went to summer camp. Mark was one of those kids.

Bob Mitchell, the main speaker that week, called most of the shots—including when meals would be served. So “Mitch” was always talking with the cook.

The cook loved her work, but it was exhausting. She always looked tired. Whenever she talked to Mitch, he got up and gave her his chair—and a moment’s rest—while they discussed meal plans.

Nobody noticed Mitch doing this…except Mark.

Mark hadn’t come to hear about Jesus. But when he saw Jesus’ love lived out in that simple act of kindness by the camp speaker, he began to listen to his talks. Later that week, Mark asked Jesus to be his Savior.

It wasn’t because of the messages, Mark said, but because of the love he saw in Mitch.

“If that’s what it means to be a Christian,” Mark said, “I want to be one.”

Who might there be within our reach to whom we might show and tell the love of Christ?

At age twelve, Robert Louis Stevenson was looking out into the dark from his upstairs window watching a man light the street-lamps. Stevenson’s governess came into the room and asked what he was doing. He replied, “I am watching a man cut holes in the darkness.”

As we show and tell Jesus to others, as we bring forth Christ to our world, I believe we are cutting holes in the darkness.

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Will Vaus

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