By Chad Hershberger

“There’s a wonderful story that I love to tell, about a tiny little baby in a manger.”

Those lyrics have been going through my head a lot in the last week. It’s from a choral piece I did when I was in high school by Besig/Price called, “Tiny Little Baby.” You can hear a version here.

This Advent season, I’ve been thinking a lot about God’s story. We anticipate the nativity and this day of gifts and remembering Jesus being born in Bethlehem. In the last four weeks, I’ve read a devotional book that recounts more of God’s story, going back to Adam and Eve. And in reading those stories of the Old Testament, I was reminded of Jesus, his birth, life, death, and resurrection.

When we come to the manger to see the newborn king, it occurs to me that we are in the middle of the story. The story of God’s people needing redemption runs long until the angels proclaim Christ’s birth over the shepherd’s fields.  Jesus’s life is relatively short but the story of spreading the good news of the cross and the empty tomb have been going on for centuries. It started with the witnesses of Easter Sunday and goes all the way to you and me. And it will continue until Christ comes again to reign forever.

At camp, we often remind our staff and campers that Jesus is the center of everything. The story we celebrate today, the gift of God becoming flesh and dwelling with us, isn’t the beginning. It truly is the middle of God’s story and reminds us that God loves us so much, that God gave his only son for us to secure our eternal life.

A very merry Christmas, from our cabin to yours!