BY THE SOUND OF A CRY

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs – Blogmas Day Twenty-Six 2023)

It was the sound of a baby’s cry that beckoned the weary world awake again, you know.

The cry echoed through the streets of Bethlehem, it overwhelmed every soul in every home, and it drove the enemy out of every nook and cranny that he had claimed as his own.

Little did he know how powerful this sound really was. This cry broke 400 years of silence between God and His people, and changed everything, forever.

I would argue that the one page that separates Malachi and Matthew is one of the most important pages in Scripture. It represents 400 years of history, 400 years without a prophet, 400 years without hearing the voice of God.

And then, a cry of a baby is heard that goes forth into the world, inviting it to be redeemed and made whole again. To draw near and know that He is God.

I can’t imagine the relief a new mother feels when she hears her baby cry for the first time. It’s the sound that reassures her that everything is okay, and that all the time she spent waiting was well worth it because it has produced the most beautiful thing… life.

Perhaps the weary world, that hadn’t heard the voice of God for 400 years, felt that same feeling when it heard the cry of its Savior on that dark and still Christmas night.

You see, dear friends, it is our tendency to believe that the silence of the Lord means He is absent and hiding Himself from us. However, this is not at all the case.

Lewis does a brilliant job of capturing how the Lord works in a dialogue between Aslan and Lucy in his most beloved Narnia series.

“Please Aslan,” said Lucy, “what do you call soon?”

“I call all times soon,” said Aslan.

How powerful is this truth, that even in the midst of 400 years of silence, God was writing the greatest story of all time, in which each one of us is a character?

The Israelites, God’s chosen people, didn’t realize that this was God’s plan all along because they failed to build altars of remembrance by reminding themselves of what was true, and the things God had done for them and promised them in the past.

Oh, how guilty we are of this!

John 11:40 says, “Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?””

Are your eyes open to see the glory of your Savior?

No longer is the veil needed. Now we can see His face, the face of our very Creator, and become just like Him.

All the world came awake, for the first time in a long while, by the sound of a cry.

The sound we have all been waiting for!

Thus, we begin the journey from the cradle to the cross.