Last week the 3rd Grader was in her school’s performance of their Christmas musical entitled, “A King is Coming.” The program was a play that centered around a small town’s preparation for a mysterious king they hear is coming to town. Rumors start circulating about who this king could be… Elvis, the “King of Rock n’ Roll,” King Tut, or even King Kong. So, as the choir sings songs related to each “king,” anticipation builds as to who the real king is. In the end, the great misunderstanding is resolved as the townspeople realize that the king is already among them because Christ our King has come in the form of the baby.
All of this made for a very sweet play. But, the Preschooler was hugely let down that the king she was imagining never showed up. She wiggled and stood on the bleacher seats and asked all through the program {loudly}, “Where’s the king?!” and, “When is the king gonna get here??” So, she was appalled at the end when we told her the long-awaited “king” was a reference to baby Jesus in the manger scene. As she observed… “That’s a baby, not a king!!”
Show me the king, people. Show me the king.
Of course, it’s understandable that a preschooler might not understand the complexities of God coming to earth in the form of a baby and yet all the while maintaining his kingship. But, I’m not sure I really understand it either. The Christmas story seems like such an upside down way of saving the world. What could be more fragile, more helpless than a baby? And, at that, a poor baby born to two ordinary villagers in a stable? It wasn’t only un-kinglike. It was crude.
Yet, this is how God answered a weary world’s plea for deliverance. It’s nearly unfathomable. But, it’s the plot line of the story my entire faith is founded upon.
Show us a king, God. Send us a king.
And, so He did… in the strangest way one could imagine.
We don’t have to understand it to believe it. But, we have to believe it to receive it.
From our family to yours… Merry Christmas!
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