For Unto Us . . .

For unto Us . . .

Christmas Eve dawned wet and cold in my hometown: a dozen small errands and last-minute deliveries drove me out into the drizzle when I’d just as soon have stayed home. The streets were surprisingly free of traffic—perhaps that’s why I noticed sights I might have otherwise missed.

A few blocks from home, on a freeway overpass, red plastic cups inserted into the chain-link fence spelled out a joyous invitation: “Marry me.” I smiled, imagining the surprise that must have greeted the one morning traveler meant to read these two simple words and reply, “Yes.”

Not far from this handmade message, a blinking electronic sign read “Lost Elderly, Bedford, Texas,” and my heart sank. Somewhere someone was celebrating. And somewhere else, an elderly person’s family was frightened for their loved one’s safety. I prayed for the person to be safe and found. Then as I exited the freeway and passed a tiny cemetery, I noticed a man in a windbreaker setting up a small Christmas tree. A blue camp chair waited nearby, and I wondered if, when he finished, he planned to sit for a while and share the tree with someone he loved.

In just a handful of miles, the morning told me three distinct stories of strangers whose names I’d never know. For unto people like us, I thought, a child is born (see Isaiah 9:6). For us, God became a man. He attended wedding celebrations, wept unashamedly at the grave of a friend, and declared he’d come especially to save the lost.

Ours is the world he entered—this messy tableau of beginnings and endings, of joy and grief, of fear and uncertainty, sorrow and celebration. He came to write the climax of redemption’s sweeping story and to write himself into our small, everyday dramas in a way that changes them forever.

Driving home in dropping temperatures and misting rain, I mouthed to the rhythm of the windshield wipers, “Unto us, unto us, unto us . . .” and offered up silent thanks for a God brave and good enough to come so far and draw so near, out of his love for us.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

Isaiah 9:6, NIV