Sometime in the first year or so after Jesus’ birth, Herod ordered the killing of all boys age two and under who lived in Bethlehem. We can hardly imagine the agony that swept through the town at that time.
I know the anguish my family and I felt years ago when my granddaughter was born and immediately developed breathing difficulties. The nurse in the rural hospital where the birth took place tried to save her life. By God’s grace, a team of neonatal nurses presenting a seminar there that day rushed in. Using the new machine they’d been demonstrating, they saved the baby’s life.
If I was shaken by my granddaughter’s brush with death, how much more must those Jewish families have grieved? And how could that remarkable night in Bethlehem when Jesus was born be marred not long after by such evil and heartbreak? This is the world into which our Savior came. The good news of His birth, life, and death is still breaking into this wicked world. May the conquering love and peace of Jesus rule in your heart this Christmas.