Can You Go Home Again?
Children's sermon
A More Urgent Season
Sermons And Children's Lessons
"All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David." (vv. 3-4)
One day not too many years ago, I decided to go back to my old elementary school and see if my third-grade teacher was still there. It had been a long time since I had been back, and I thought it would be fun to see if she remembered me and if the school was as I remembered it to be.
Do you know what? Everything was different! My old teacher had retired, and someone else had taken her place. But that wasn't all that was different. They changed the desks. The desks were now so tiny! I remember being a third-grader and sitting very comfortably in normal-sized school desks, but these desks in my old classroom were so small that I couldn't even fit my knees under them! I remember the doorway used to be enormously high, towering way over my head; now it was just a regular doorway just barely taller than me. I walked down the hall to the water fountain, and a bubbler which used to be waist-high was now way down by the floor. I was so surprised at how the old place had changed that I went home and said to my wife, "Honey, they shrunk the school!"
Of course, the school hadn't changed at all; I was the one who was different! The desks, doorways and water fountains were the same size they had always been and were just fine for third-graders, but now that I was a fully-grown adult, they seemed very small to me.
I'll bet you have had similar experiences in your own lives. You may have had a favorite toy when you were a baby, for example, but now you can't play with that toy because you are older. You've changed, and you like different kinds of toys now.
We have an expression for this: we say, "You can't go home again." It means that as you get older and move on in life, you can't go back and find your old home, your old school, your old friends or toys exactly as you once knew them. You will have changed, the people, places and things you once knew will have changed, and nothing will be quite as you remembered it in your younger years.
We see this in the Christmas story, when Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, where their ancestors had lived. They went because a ruler named Caesar had ordered everyone to go back to their family's hometown to pay a tax. But when Joseph and Mary got there, they saw a very different Bethlehem than the one they remembered, since their small village was now so full of people that they couldn't even find a room to rent! They had to find a cave outside of town, which is where Mary gave birth to her baby, Jesus. Even Joseph and Mary couldn't go home again, because home was no longer the same little town of Bethlehem it once had been.
It may seem too bad that the people and places which mean so much to us in life change as the years go by. But there is one part of our life which never changes and to which we can always return. Of course, I am talking about God. The God we know is dependable and familiar. No matter what may happen as the years go by, you can always go to God for comfort, rest and help. You can trust Him to be the same good God He has always been, and because the goodness of our God is constant and forever, we need never feel lost or afraid when everything else changes in life. With God, we always know we have a safe place, a place to go home to again. Amen.
One day not too many years ago, I decided to go back to my old elementary school and see if my third-grade teacher was still there. It had been a long time since I had been back, and I thought it would be fun to see if she remembered me and if the school was as I remembered it to be.
Do you know what? Everything was different! My old teacher had retired, and someone else had taken her place. But that wasn't all that was different. They changed the desks. The desks were now so tiny! I remember being a third-grader and sitting very comfortably in normal-sized school desks, but these desks in my old classroom were so small that I couldn't even fit my knees under them! I remember the doorway used to be enormously high, towering way over my head; now it was just a regular doorway just barely taller than me. I walked down the hall to the water fountain, and a bubbler which used to be waist-high was now way down by the floor. I was so surprised at how the old place had changed that I went home and said to my wife, "Honey, they shrunk the school!"
Of course, the school hadn't changed at all; I was the one who was different! The desks, doorways and water fountains were the same size they had always been and were just fine for third-graders, but now that I was a fully-grown adult, they seemed very small to me.
I'll bet you have had similar experiences in your own lives. You may have had a favorite toy when you were a baby, for example, but now you can't play with that toy because you are older. You've changed, and you like different kinds of toys now.
We have an expression for this: we say, "You can't go home again." It means that as you get older and move on in life, you can't go back and find your old home, your old school, your old friends or toys exactly as you once knew them. You will have changed, the people, places and things you once knew will have changed, and nothing will be quite as you remembered it in your younger years.
We see this in the Christmas story, when Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, where their ancestors had lived. They went because a ruler named Caesar had ordered everyone to go back to their family's hometown to pay a tax. But when Joseph and Mary got there, they saw a very different Bethlehem than the one they remembered, since their small village was now so full of people that they couldn't even find a room to rent! They had to find a cave outside of town, which is where Mary gave birth to her baby, Jesus. Even Joseph and Mary couldn't go home again, because home was no longer the same little town of Bethlehem it once had been.
It may seem too bad that the people and places which mean so much to us in life change as the years go by. But there is one part of our life which never changes and to which we can always return. Of course, I am talking about God. The God we know is dependable and familiar. No matter what may happen as the years go by, you can always go to God for comfort, rest and help. You can trust Him to be the same good God He has always been, and because the goodness of our God is constant and forever, we need never feel lost or afraid when everything else changes in life. With God, we always know we have a safe place, a place to go home to again. Amen.
