"The Baby that Changed Everything"
[story from Bruce W. Thielemann}
Did you ever read Bret Harte's story The Luck of Roaring
Camp? Roaring Camp was supposed to be, according tot he story, the meanest,
toughest mining town in all of the West. More murders, more thefts--it was a
terrible place inhabited entirely by men, and one woman who tried to serve them
all. Her name was Cherokee Sal. She died while giving birth to a baby.
Well, the men took
the baby, and they put her in a box with some old rags under her. When they
looked at her, they decided that didn't look right, so they sent one of the men
eighty miles to buy a rosewood cradle. He brought it back, and they put the rags
and the baby in the rosewood cradle. And the rags didn't look right there. So
they sent another of their number to Sacramento, and he came back with some
beautiful silk and lace blankets. And they put the baby, wrapped around with
those blankets, in the rosewood cradle.
It looked fine
until someone happened to notice that the floor was so filthy. So these
hardened, tough men got down on their hands and knees, and with their hardened
and horny hands they scrubbed that floor until it was very clean. Of course,
what that did was to make the walls and the ceiling and the dirty windows
without curtains look absolutely terrible. So they washed down the walls and
the ceiling, and they put curtains at the windows. And now things were
beginning to look as they thought they should look. But of course, they had to
give up a lot of their fighting, because the baby slept a lot, and babies can't
sleep during a brawl.
So the whole
temperature of Roaring Camp seemed to go down. They used to take her out and
set her by the entrance to the mine in her rosewood cradle so they could see
her when they came up. Then somebody noticed what a dirty place that was, so
they planted flowers, and they made a very nice garden there. It looked quite
beautiful. And they would bring her, oh, shiny little stones and things that
they would find in the mine. But when they would put their hands down next to
hers, their hands looked so dirty. Pretty soon the general store was all sold
out of soap and shaving gear and perfume and those kinds ... the baby changed
everything.
That's the way it
is for those of good will. That's the way it is for those who please God. The
baby enters into their lives, and he slips into every crevice of their
experience, until they say "Hark! Listen, the herald angels sing! God is
for us. And Christmas is forever."
-- Bruce W.
Thielemann, "Hark! The Herald Angels," Preaching Today, Tape No. 63.
See: Isa 9:6; Jn 1:14; Php 2:7.
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
John 1:14 (ESV)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Philippians 2:7 (ESV)
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
John 1:14 (ESV)
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Philippians 2:7 (ESV)
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
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