I remember when my children were born. They were days of pure promise. I was so proud and I wanted to tell the world “My child is born.”

There is something so tremendous and precious about parenthood. Parents receive the gift of being depended upon for everything. Parents
receive the gift of watching the child grow. Parents cannot, though, control the future. They can guide, love, and have faith that the promise of
hope given the child at birth will be lived out.

I love my children and now, my grandchildren. I cannot fulfill their lives nor make their expectations turn out.

During the Christian season of Christmas we remember the life of God coming into the world bringing promise, joy, and hope for the world.
But there are children in this world whose lives did not turn out quite so hopeful.

There is the child who did not eat today.
There is the child, now an adult, who came to the Church today asking for food.
There is the child suffering soul sickness seeking a healing community.
There is the child isolated from loved ones living in war-torn countries.
There is the child….there is the child.

Our lives have not, do not, and will not turn out the way we expected them to. We expected when we were children to be cared for, to be loved, to be held close to someone’s heart. Our lives are uncertain. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We grope our way through life’s ambushes of divorce, unemployment, disease, newspaper headline fears, and death. Our life expectations that start out so hopefully seem to become hopeless.

But there is the child that the Angels sang about. There is the child who was born to care for us in the midst of our uncertain world. God knows what our expectations are. God know we expect and need to be loved. God created us like that. We are, each of us, children with divine expectations.

Our daily expectations are realized in this child who was born.

We have the needs of food and clothing ... He has taught us to care for those in need.

We have been afraid of loneliness….He has promised to be with us always.

We have been frightened by sickness….He has commanded us to be healers with Him.

We have been in despair about death….He has destroyed death's power.

Our lives have not always turned out the way we expected them to. That is because we concentrate on ourselves and not on His child. In Christ
our prayers have been answered. The children who have lived in darkness have seen the great light. Know that when we Christians say “Merry
Christmas” we say so because we know the truth of “Happy Easter…He is Risen!”

God’s child is born for all of the children. His child is born….and the angels still sing!

The Rt. Rev. Dabney T. Smith