Please note, this is borrowed from my devotion on ChristianDevotions.us – Used with permission.
Big Sandals to Fill
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born… – Luke 2:6 NIV
I scanned the photo of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. My mom wore a satin choir robe with a long piece of material draped over her head and wrapped around her shoulders – the classic “church version” of how Mary must have dressed. Joseph stood, clad in the same choir robe, a striped headpiece tied by a thin rope around his brow. And me, seven months old, one hand extended from the swaddling wrap that bound me tight. Even then, the weight of portraying the infant Christ, weighed heavy. Or it could have been my diaper. I’m not sure.
Every Christmas Mom pulled out the family album and showed me that photo and every year, I felt the weight. Was I worthy? Am I worthy?
Mary hardly had the opportunity to be a child before God thrust the responsibility of Christ in her arms. Yet He saw her worth and honored her. Scripture gives the abbreviated version of the birth from the gospels and we’re left to wonder the thoughts of a child mother giving birth alone in poor conditions. Mary and Joseph had nothing but the clothes on their backs – then the time came for the baby to be born. . . and they had everything.
Each year I look at the photo of our church nativity and wonder, that the sandals of Jesus were big sandals to fill. Could a child, a girl, a woman like me, fill them?
The birth of Christ changed everything for everyone and by human standards, we are not worthy but by God’s hand, we were made worthy. Whether we’ve had the role of Jesus in a play or whether we watched the story of his birth for the zillionth time, we all inherited the sandals when we gave our hearts to Him. And they are big sandals to wear.
This Christmas day, remember when the time came, Jesus was born. Then know, that we can never fill the sandals from His feet, but we can walk in the footprints He leaves behind. And when we turn and look at where we were and where we are now – we can rest assured that He came and that He will come again.
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