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Dr. Len G. Broughton, a medical doctor,
was a church going man but he had a problem with Christmas.
He wasn’t bothered by the commercialism of the season; his
problem was the central miracle itself. He simply couldn’t
bring himself to believe in the virgin birth of Christ.
Everything he had learned in medical school and observed in
his work seemed to contradict this miracle birth that
everyone kept talking about. Reason, he felt, forced him to
reject the reason for the season.
Then one Sunday morning everything
changed for this doubting doctor.
Having begun his medical practice in a
rural area, Dr. Broughton attended a small country church
and one Sunday morning, the pastor took the first verse in
the Bible as the text for his sermon: “In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.” He then told his
congregation that this verse contained the only strange
thing in the universe. He said if his hearers could believe
that God was there before the beginning, they could believe
everything else in the Bible.
Dr. Broughton saw the pastor’s logic
and in that moment traded his doubts for faith. From that
time on, he had no difficulty believing in the virgin birth
of Christ. The miracle of Christmas now made sense to him.
Interestingly, it was another medical
doctor who recorded the facts about Christ’s birth and his
words are read in nearly every Christmas program: Dr.Luke
(called “the beloved physician” in the Bible). His
announcement of the birth of Jesus was brief and to the
point: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped
Him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger because
there was no room for them in the inn.” But the impact of
that humble birth was so earth shaking it is impossible to
fully explain.
H.G. Wells concluded he could not write
a history of the world and ignore the one born that night in
Bethlehem, calling him the most unique person of history.
Dr. Arnold Toynbee, the famed
historian, wrote: “As we stand and gaze with our eyes fixed
upon the farther shore of history, a simple figure arises
from the flood and straightway fills the whole horizon.
There stands the Savior.”
Phillips Brooks, who wrote the favorite
carol, “O Little Town Of Bethlehem,” said, “I
am far within the mark when I say that
all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that
ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and
all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not
affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as
that one solitary life -- the life of Christ.
Dr. Luke also reveals that the first
visitors to the manger weren’t physicians, attorneys, kings,
nor even politicians; they were humble shepherds who had
been tending their flocks by night on a hillside near
Bethlehem. Shepherds with the smell of the fields and
flocks on their clothes were the first to worship the one
whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, reminding us our Lord
is approachable for us all, regardless of our station in
life.
After worshipping at the manger, the
shepherds became the first missionaries, telling the good
news to all they met. Their purpose in life now centered on
the one who would call himself the Good Shepherd. Troubled
people who follow their example of faith and service will
find this to be just what the doctor ordered. |
