On Christmas Eve we celebrate the life-changing journeys made by earthly beings—from poor shepherds in the fields to wealthy wise men from the East—and even by heavenly beings: the angels who proclaimed the birth to the shepherds.
All of them made important journeys to Bethlehem to welcome and proclaim the newborn Jesus as both savior and king. Jesus himself also journeyed to Bethlehem, all the way from God’s heavenly bosom to that divinely appointed place and time for his humble but historic entrance into our fallen world.
But perhaps the most important journeys are not the ones that others took to get to Jesus. Maybe the most important journey is--is not to Jesus but from Jesus--the journey that Jesus took throughout his life and ministry all the way to the cross, and the journey Jesus still takes today, just to get to us with his compelling message of love, grace and salvation. It's a message that traverses centuries and boundaries to get to us, a message that seeks entry through the often hard-to-open doors to our waiting hearts.