He was meant to be found because God initiated the search!

“ … You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:12 NIV

We find these words in one of Scriptures most implausible stories. As heaven’s PR advance team break into earthly view, they drop the most important news ever into the laps of some of the least likely recipients.

This ‘good news which is to bring great joy to potentially everyone on the planet’ isn’t first shared with the rich, famous or for that matter ones best equipped to pass it on. It comes to shepherds … men with very little clout and a little weak on reputation.

If you’re looking for evidence that God’s salvation is for everyone, this first “Read all about it” is proof.

This baby has been a long time in coming. His lineage was announced almost 1400 years before his birth and the place and manner of his arrival had been forecasted by prophets more than 700 years before He actually got here!

It’s an amazing thing. But I’m equally amazed at something else in this story. The shepherds are told, “You will find a baby …” And why were they able to locate this Baby?

Because God made the Christ child available to be found!! The locating information was precise: “Don’t look for a glow or halo; don’t listen for more angels singing. He will be the one baby in Bethlehem that will be swaddled in cloth and will be found in an animal feeding trough.”

We make a big deal over finding Jesus in our lives. And for good reason. He’s an astounding find! But we would have had zero success if He hadn’t made himself available to be found.

He always initiates the relationship.

When we seek for him and find him it’s because he has chosen to put himself into our ‘search field.’ Andrew tells his brother Peter (John 1:41,42) “We have found the Messiah.” And when he returns with his brother to where Jesus had been … Jesus is still there, waiting to be found by Peter as well.

As the relationship-challenged woman from the well in Samaria (John 4:29) rushes back to her friends, she says, “Come see a man who told me all about myself!” And when she leads them back to the well, we find Jesus. Again, He’s waiting to be found.

This week as we look forward to the full effects of the Christmas story sweeping over us, let’s never forget that the Object of our search went to great lengths to make sure we could find Him.

Rejoice! We have found the Baby because God wanted us to find Him!