Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  Luke 2:11

Two of those words just jump right out to me as I prepare for the Christmas holiday:  TO YOU!  Christ’s birth is meant to be interactive!

Here’s one of my all time favorite stories from our past ministry. . .

We had just planted a non-denominational church in a very denominational town.  There was a great deal of suspicion about whether we were “legit” or not.  Because I was the low man on the pastoral totem poll, our church got the job for the city-wide Christmas celebration that no one else wanted…staffing the living nativity.  I did want any red-blooded pastor would do, I delegated the responsibility to my newly appointed youth workers.

What could go wrong?

Our lead youth worker was relatively unchurched.  And he had never done a live nativity before.  This southern gentleman was now given the huge responsibility of playing Joseph.  Everything looked fine the night of the performance.  We had great costumes, a real baby, and even live animals.

As the people started to gather and look at the beauty of the nativity, it became apparent that no one had told “Joseph” that living nativities were to be seen and not heard!  He started interacting with the crowd. . .

“Ya’ll want to see my baby boy?”  

I knew this was going to be a very different experience when I heard him say:  “Would you like to hold him?”

I was just VERY glad that he didn’t have cigars!

Here’s the TRUTH. . .Christ’s birth is meant to be interactive!  Today a Savior has been born TO YOU!!!!!!

He is forever in the present tense and He is meant to be experienced.  In fact, he would like to hold you!