Swaddling Clothes

Look around on this Christmas Eve, and you'll see a lot of festive clothes. The conservative fellow who usually wears dark gray suits? Today he's sporting a bright green tie—and it plays "Jingle Bells" if you squeeze it in the middle. The woman who usually dresses in plain-colored fabrics? Today she's wearing a bright red dress. The casual young man who never dresses up? Today he's decked out with a sharp-looking sweater, and socks with Christmas trees printed on the side.

Even the family pet may end up with a pair of reindeer antlers strapped to its head!

Tonight, millions of God's people will worship in candlelit church buildings adorned with poinsettias. City sidewalks are dressed in holiday style, and in the north a blanket of snow wraps the scene in sparkling beauty.

Christmas is a time to dress up and look up. Bathrobed children pretend to be shepherds and wise men. Though they have seen it all a thousand times before, grownups still get misty-eyed when the gentle chords of "Silent Night" fill the air. Musicians sing and play Handel's "Messiah" with an extra touch of enthusiasm. Skeptical neighbors find themselves going to church, drawn by a thirst for God they seldom recognize. Weary Christians find their zeal for God refreshed as they sing "O Come, All Ye Faithful," and remember anew what they believe and why they believe.

If there's a soft spot in your heart, Christmas will find it. There's the familiar aroma of holiday food, the excited laughter of children, the warm hug of a loved one who made it home for Christmas.

But if there's a sad spot in your heart, Christmas will touch it, too. Beneath the bright-colored sweaters, many will struggle with hidden hurts as they gather around the holiday table. They will grieve for a family member who died this year. Recall a painful secret they can't share. Wrestle with a family conflict they can't resolve. Feel the weight of a burden that will still be there when the last present has been opened and the last crumb of pumpkin pie has disappeared. And some will spend the holiday alone with the ache of emptiness in their hearts.

It wasn't a dress-up affair long ago when a young mother broke the night's silence with labor cries. No warm pajamas were available in Bethlehem. No furnace to heat the overcrowded inn—much less the stable where the young couple and their baby stayed. Nothing came between the shivering infant and the evening chill but some simple strips of cloth, a bed of hay, and his mother's warm embrace. No royal robes, just swaddling clothes.

Years later, Jesus wore a seamless one-piece garment, and the sick were healed when they touched the hem of it. One dark day soldiers sat beneath the cross gambling for it. Then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped his lifeless body in strips of linen—swaddling clothes once again—and buried him in a garden grave. On Sunday morning, though, when Peter and John found the strips of linen lying there in the tomb, the swaddling clothes silently testified that Jesus was risen from the dead.

"Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). The Son of God went from riches to rags, so we can exchange the rags of our sin for the riches of his righteousness. Whatever your circumstances this Christmas, don't miss the best gift of all. It came beautifully gift-wrapped—in swaddling clothes.