USGN Article - December 2002
Terry & Barbi Franklin
By: Terry Franklin

“Gambling On Christmas”

My son has been hounding me about getting his driver’s license – I’ve been stalling every way I know how. You see, although he has great maturity and character for his age, I’m scared of him cruising the streets someday by himself. As a parent (and former teenager) I am fully informed of the dangers of driving…and the supermarket of perils that can involve boys and cars.

But the bottom line is this: In some ways I don’t want him to grow up. Like beads dropping off of a broken bracelet, the years fall away…and while I may ask for it on my Christmas list…I can’t get those years back.

There is enormous risk – escalating risk – as he gets older. It’s only my faith in a merciful God (and the fact that he is an exceptional kid) that keeps me from constant hand wringing.

But my risk is nothing compared to what God did when He put everything on the line on that Christmas morning long ago. Sending Christ as a tiny baby to a poor family, born in deplorable conditions at a challenging time in history, was an incredibly bold move.

Unless you understand that Jesus “could” have failed you can never fully appreciate His being given “…the Name above all Names.” He was 100% human…and 100% divine. He was fully Deity…yet, as fully human as…a baby.

Did those shepherds know that starry night that history was hanging on a precipice and a promise? But the “faith of our fathers” first began with the faith of a Father who, while knowing all things, still allowed them to freely unravel in their own way.

Like the unwrapping of a Christmas package...

We’ll sing around the piano this Christmas and I’ll look into the eyes of a son who, last Christmas, was 6 inches shorter than he is now (he’s 3 inches taller than his dad!) Like a mariner who stands on the dock and slowly releases the bowline – my son’s ship is beginning to turn toward the sea. My belief in his protection is not a gamble, but a firm trust in a Father who risked all of Creation. Wrapped tightly in that feeding trough that first Christmas morning was the greatest gift ever given. Satan and his henchmen thought they had a good hand…but our Lord was holding all the cards. GIVE HIM PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING THIS CHRISTMAS!

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