Welcome to Our World

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that You don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for them
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our world

Welcome--a greeting which invites us in, a greeting in which we feel our presence is not only tolerated but desired. Welcome--a friendly salutation to someone outside, an inviting reception to enter from a place on the outskirts into our humble abode. Welcome--an exclamation of joy upon seeing someone we have long missed. It is with great joy on Christmas day that we exclaim Welcome! to our Savior. He is who we have waited for, watched for, pined for, and on Christmas night, He was born to us.

I can picture Mary, after hours of arduous labor, hearing the cry of her sweet baby boy. In some ways pregnancy and labor are fitting analogies for the longing we as a people have had in our hearts for the arrival of a Savior. We know He will come someday, but we aren't exactly sure when. We are overjoyed with the prospect of the new life growing within us, but we are uncomfortable with the painful changes that come as we wait and our bodies groan. We know that there will be great anguish before there is great joy, and yet we long for the pain to start so that we can know the life that waits for us on the other side. As Mary struggles through contractions, groans under the weight of the child working to break free, she cannot wait for the torment to end. Finally she hears the cry of a baby Jesus, and she reaches out to hold Him. As she takes Him in her arms, she whispers as so many mothers have, Welcome to the world, little One. I've been waiting for You to arrive. I'm so glad you are here.

It wasn't just Mary who was so glad to welcome the Holy Child. Every heart in this world groaned under the weight of sin, the heaviness of the curse upon us. Tears are falling, hearts are breaking. I feel this anguish. More than once this holiday season I have cried out in loneliness, in longing for healed marriages, in overwhelming sadness for war-torn families. I've shed tears as I've remembered the little ones who perished at Sandy Hook; I've felt my heart break as I've looked into the little faces of Syrian children in need of shelter and protection. This world is broken, shattered into a million pieces. How we need to hear from God, how we long for it! Where are you God? Why have you left us in this mess? I can't imagine the hopelessness the people felt before the Christ Child. They knew an end would come, but they didn't know when or how, and as they watched the world torn asunder, all they could do was trust in the promises made by God. How thankful I am to live in a time when I have the joy of trusting in the God who came to this world.

How thankful I am to trust a God who came and wrapped His holy body in our injured flesh, who breathed our air and walked our sod. How thankful I am to know the Perfect Son of God came with His fragile finger to heal us, and offered His tender brow to wear a crown of thorns. The tender beating heart of the Babe lying in the manger, beat until it could beat no more as blood spilled out on the cross. This suffering Savior, this tender child who would bleed on our behalf, stands as proof that God has not left us wondering where He is. This Christ Child is evidence that God is here, He has suffered with us, He has born the pain and sin and sorrow. He came as a tender, vulnerable, precious child so that we might see that we are not alone in our vulnerability.

We are held by a God wrapped in our injured flesh. He sees the violence of our world, He experiences it being hurled at Him as whips lash His back and nails pierce Him through, and He brings peace. Jesus feels the hunger of an a stomach aching for food, the chill of a night spent without a home, and He satisfies our need. He is the Word made flesh, and it is His word that assures us that our God is not silent. Jesus knows intimately the pain of crying out to God and feeling as if He stands silent. Now Jesus even understands the longing in the silence. 

It is with grateful hearts that we welcome this Holy Stranger. We cry out Welcome! because our hearts have been longing for just this. We have been longing to be known, to be understood, to be seen, to be healed. And here, in this precious Baby, all of those gifts have arrived. After the groaning and anguish of laboring in this sinful world, we whisper with Mary Welcome to our world little One. We have been waiting for You.