Anything New

When God has had something great to share with us, He has always shown it to us in a person.  In 1909 John T. McCutcheon drew a striking cartoon to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.  In the picture, snow covered the ground and cold leafless trees stood gaunt against the laden sky.  Two frontiersmen were on the edge of the desolate woods; one asked the other, “anything new?”  The other man replied, “Nothing much, oh, I here there’s a new baby over at Tom Lincoln’s… nothing ever happens around here”.

One can almost imagine a similar conversation in Bethlehem of Judea, two thousand years ago.  “Anything new?” and the answer,  “No, nothing new, oh, they say a woman from Galilee had a baby over in the stables last night.  Nothing ever happens around here”. But, you see, God’s greatest offerings and his greatest blessings are forever packaged as persons.