A young teenager finds herself pregnant. Her fiancée wants nothing to do with her, because he knows that child is not his. This scenario is played out daily in our world and often results in just one more abortion, a human life tossed aside like so much trash. Or perhaps they would harvest the fetal tissue for stem cells, use in research, experiments, or transplants. Of course they would never discuss or even consider that the tissue came from a person.

Think about the advice Mary would receive if God had chosen to carry out His plan in the United States of the 21st century. “Get rid of that fetus before it is born. Having a baby now will just ruin your life.” That is the wisdom of our world.

God had other plans in sending His Son to this world at just the right time. That child born to us through Mary did not ruin lives– He saved our lives! That which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost, God made flesh, the long awaited Messiah, Christ the Lord. Through His life He would keep the Law for us. By His death He would pay the price for our sin. In His resurrection we receive the Good News of our own rising from death to life for eternity. That is a far cry from what the world would consider an “unwanted child.”

There are plenty of people who still consider Jesus an “unwanted child.” They don’t want Him in their lives. For the most part, that is because they have never really met Him. They have heard things and seen misrepresentations of Him, but they have not met the real Jesus.

Those who follow Jesus need to remember that when people see us and observe our actions, they attribute what we say and do to Jesus. How do you represent Him in your spheres of influence?

My prayer this Advent and Christmas season is that more people would see Jesus for who He truly is when they encounter those of us who follow Him.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
Oh, come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!