When God tells us to do something, we do it straight away, without delay. We are afraid to delay, knowing our own hearts: that it is too easy for us to make excuses, to lose interest, to fail to grasp the importance of what he has said. We will lose the benefit of acting on his instruction by not taking his word seriously. The shepherds had to find someone to watch over the sheep in their absence, but that was quickly done. We come in response to the gospel. All other concerns take second place and are set aside. We must find the Lord. We must look upon Jesus Christ and consider who he is and what God has done in sending him into the world.
Why was Christ born as a babe and why did he not leave out infancy and childhood, and go straight into adult years? If Christ when he entered into human flesh and human personality had presented himself as an adult, and just appeared from nowhere, then of course the ancient prophecies would all have been different, and would have announced him according to that kind of coming. But no, he came as an infant child. Why? He was living a perfect life from the very beginning and his coming as a babe is wonderful to us because it teaches us many things. When Christ came, he was going to assume all human limitations and imperfections. He would still be the infinite God, but he would enter into a human body with all its limitations, and he would not exempt himself from any human pressures at all. We should have lived perfect lives from infancy onwards, but the human race fell. We need not only a Saviour who will bear the punishment of sin for us, but a Saviour who will earn an eternal blessing for us by doing what we failed to do. He is our representative. He did not exempt himself from any phase of the human life. He grew up as an infant, and he was perfect throughout that life lifelong experience, taking our weaknesses and our limitations in every sense, experiencing our every situation.
Then of course the lesson is this: that if God would identify with human beings to such a degree that he would even share our infancy and our childhood, what an assurance that is to us that he means to relate to us, and he means us to relate to him. Can I be sure that if I repent of my sin and believe in Christ Jesus, I will know him, and he will be kind to me and he will behave toward me in a personal relating manner? Will his heart be warm towards me, and will he sympathise with me and answer my prayers? Yes, he has fully identified with the human race and entered into our experience throughout every second of his life, even from infancy. That tells us he chooses to relate to us if we repent of our sin, receive his forgiving love, receive spiritual life from him. We have that ‘friend that sticketh closer than a brother’, that friend in heaven that Lord of glory that intensely personal relationship with Christ, the eternal Son of God our Saviour.