Stars of Christmas: Star of Light

John 1:1-14

December 26, 2004

1. We’ve been "star-gazing" all through Advent. We’ve watched the stars shine brighter and brighter in the darkness of our lives. And finally, Friday night and all day Saturday, we celebrated the full brilliance of that light as it shone in the birth of Christ Jesus.

2. There is a story of a man who waited and waited for that star to shine on him. He was an old cobbler in a little Italian village. He had always heard that Christ would come to visit him on Christmas Day; the light of Christ would shine on him on Christmas Day IF he was ready to receive him. Each year he got ready, but the light of that star never did shine on him, Christ never did visit him—at least, not in the way he expected. He especially wanted to be ready the year this story happened; because he had a feeling this year would be his last. So he got up early Christmas morning and began cooking his nourishing stew and baking the kind of bread his mamma used to bake. He would have cleaned first, but he always made such a mess that it would have been pointless to clean first. So he rolled up his sleeves and started cooking. He had hardly begun when he heard a knock on the door. He thought, "I’m not ready!" He started to stay in the kitchen, and not respond, but then he thought "Maybe it’s the Christ!" so he answered the door. But it wasn’t Jesus. It was only a young mother and her little girl. Both of them were hungry, they said, and wondered if he had some food they could eat. Of course he did, they didn’t even need to ask! They could smell the delicious aroma. So he invited them in, fed them what he had, and sent them on their way. As they left, they said, almost in unison, "Merry Christmas! God bless you!" That took a couple of hours. He had to hurry to clean the house! He set about to scrub and mop and dust, and after a while there was another knock on the door. "Maybe THIS is the Christ! The light seems to be getting brighter." But once again it was someone he did not know. This time it was a shabby, dirty little man and the cobbler started to send him on his way. But something made him stop. He asked him in and heated water for him to bath and wash his filthy clothes. He fed the man what was left of the food he had been cooking, and then sent him on his way. As the man turn to walk away, he said, Merry Christmas! God bless you!" By that time the little old cobbler was tired. He had worked all day, and it wore him out because he wasn’t as young as he used to be. So he sat down in his chair by the window hoping to see the light from Christ’s star. After a while he fell asleep. As he slept, he breathed his last breath on this side of life. When he woke up, he was in heaven. It took a minute for him to get his bearings. We’re all a bit groggy when we first wake up, right? But he remembered he had gone to sleep waiting for the light of Christ, and he was truly puzzled. He had spent his whole life waiting—preparing for Jesus to come on Christmas. But it had not happened. And now that he was in heaven, he had the perfect opportunity to find out what went wrong. He flew straight to the heavenly throne, and in a clear voice asked his question. Immediately the answer came. "Oh, but I DID come! I was the light that shone in the eyes of that dirty old man when you washed me; and I was the twinkle in the eyes of that woman and little child when you fed me."