Come, Follow Me for Littles · December 21

One big bright beautiful star shining in a deep blue evening sky above rolling green hills, with a small child in modest ancient-Israel robes gazing up at it in wonder and gentle sheep resting nearby.

Monday

A Star Was Coming

Today's idea Prophets pointed to Jesus for hundreds and hundreds of years before He came.

It is Christmas week! All year long we have been reading the Old Testament — and something has been happening the whole time that is worth stopping to notice.

Prophet after prophet, all the way back to the very beginning, kept pointing at somebody who had not come yet.

One of them was Balaam, and hundreds of years before Jesus was born he said, “there shall come a Star out of Jacob.”

A star. And do you know what showed up in the sky when Jesus was finally born? A star, so bright that wise men far away packed up and followed it all the way to Him.

The prophets did not know exactly when. They just knew He was coming, and they kept saying so, and they kept being right.

So this week, when you see lights and stars up on people's houses, you can remember: somebody promised that star a very, very long time ago.

A kind young shepherd in modest ancient-Israel robes standing among a flock of fluffy white sheep on a sunny green hillside holding a wooden crook, with a small lamb nuzzling close.

Tuesday

The Good Shepherd

Psalm 23

Today's idea Jesus is a shepherd, and shepherds were the first people told about Him.

All year in the Old Testament, one picture keeps coming back: a shepherd.

David wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Ezekiel wrote about a shepherd who goes out looking for the lost one. Isaiah wrote about a shepherd who carries the lambs in his arms.

A shepherd counts. A shepherd goes looking. A shepherd stays out all night so the sheep can sleep.

His crook — that long stick with the curl on the end — is for helping and guiding, hooking a wobbly lamb back onto the path.

And here is the part that gives me happy shivers. On the night Jesus was born, out of all the people in the world Heavenly Father could have told first, He told some shepherds.

Ordinary shepherds, sitting on a hillside doing their job. The good Shepherd came, and the very first invitation went to them.

Clear sparkling water gushing out of a big grey rock in a sunny valley and forming a bright stream, with delighted children in modest ancient-Israel robes cupping their hands to drink and laughing.

Wednesday

Water from the Rock

Exodus 17

Today's idea Jesus is the Rock, and He gives us water that never runs out.

Once, a long time ago, Moses and a great crowd of people were walking through a dry place, and they were thirsty. Really thirsty. There was no water anywhere.

Heavenly Father told Moses to go to a big rock and strike it with his stick.

A rock! You would not go to a rock for a drink. But Moses did it — and water came pouring out, cold and clear, enough for everybody.

The Old Testament is full of little pictures like that, and they all point at Jesus. He is called a Rock, because He is strong and steady and does not move.

And He gives water, too. Not the kind you drink — the kind that makes you feel full up and alive inside even on a dry, tired day.

So a rock and some water in the desert, thousands of years ago, was really a picture of Him all along.

A young mother in modest ancient-Israel robes holding a newborn baby wrapped in soft cream cloth, a kind father kneeling beside them smiling, with gentle lambs resting on golden straw in warm light.

Thursday

Unto Us a Child Is Born

Isaiah 9

Today's idea The promise everybody was waiting for turned out to be a baby.

If you were going to rescue the whole world, how would you arrive?

People expected somebody enormous. A king with an army. Somebody who would come marching in.

But Isaiah knew better, and seven hundred years ahead of time he wrote down how it would really happen: “For unto us a child is born.”

A child. A brand-new baby, who could not walk or talk or even hold up His own head yet. Somebody had to feed Him and wrap Him up and rock Him to sleep.

That is how Heavenly Father sent the most important person who ever lived. Small enough to be carried.

Isaiah gave Him big names too — Wonderful, Counsellor, The Prince of Peace. All those enormous names, on a tiny baby in Bethlehem.

A cosy stable with a wooden manger full of soft golden straw where a newborn baby sleeps wrapped in cream cloth, a young mother and kind father kneeling close and smiling, with a gentle donkey nearby.

Friday

A Manger for a King

Luke 2

Today's idea Jesus was born in the humblest place there was.

Mary and Joseph had to travel a long way to Bethlehem, and Mary was going to have her baby very soon.

When they finally got there, the town was full. Every place they knocked was already crowded. There was no room anywhere.

So they stayed where the animals stayed — warm, and quiet, and smelling of hay.

And that is where Jesus was born. Mary wrapped Him up snug in soft cloths, and laid Him in a manger, which is the wooden box the animals eat their hay out of.

A manger for a bed. Straw for a mattress. A cow and a donkey for company.

Heavenly Father could have chosen anywhere in the whole world. He chose the smallest, plainest, most ordinary corner of it — which means there is nowhere too small or too plain for Jesus to come.

Shepherds in modest ancient-Israel robes on a green hillside at night looking up in joyful wonder at a sky full of warm golden light and gentle friendly angels singing, with woolly sheep around them.

Saturday

The Shepherds Heard First

Luke 2

Today's idea The best news in the world was told to ordinary people first.

That same night, out on the hills nearby, some shepherds were sitting up with their sheep. It was dark and quiet and probably a bit chilly.

Then the sky lit up.

An angel was there, and the shepherds were amazed. The very first thing the angel said was, “Fear not.” And then: “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people.”

The angel told them a baby had been born in Bethlehem, and that they would find Him wrapped up and lying in a manger.

And then — suddenly — the whole sky was full of angels, singing together: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

When it went quiet again, the shepherds said to each other, “Let us go and see!” And they hurried off, and they found Him, exactly as they had been told.

A joyful family in modest ancient-Israel robes gathered close around a newborn baby, everyone smiling with delight in warm golden light, with a bright star in the deep blue sky above.

Sunday

A Son Is Given

Isaiah 9

Today's idea Jesus is Heavenly Father's gift to you.

It is nearly Christmas. Maybe there are presents at your house, wrapped up and waiting.

Do you know what makes a present a present? Nobody paid for it. You did not earn it. Somebody just wanted you to have it.

Isaiah said something about Jesus that fits exactly. He said, “unto us a son is GIVEN.”

Given. Not sold, not lent, not earned. Heavenly Father looked at all of us and gave us the very best thing He had.

That is why we give each other presents at Christmas. Every single one is a small copy of the first one.

So when you open something this week, you can think: somebody wanted me to have this. And then remember Who started that.