Do you know that babies do not know sin?

A number of years ago, my colleague co-pastor and I divided up the list of families we knew who were going through hard times and needed the support of the church. We had some baskets of food, and wrapped presents for the kids, and even a little bit of money to help them out at the holidays. One of the families I visited that year wasn’t much of a family. It was just a young girl who lived with her on-again, off-again drug-addicted boyfriend. She had a drug problem too. The apartment they lived in was a mess, and in a terrible neighborhood. And everything about the circumstances said “SIN” in capital letters.

But as I sat on a torn sofa that was missing the middle cushion, visiting with this forlorn little girl, something happened. A baby started crying. She excused herself, got up and went into a bedroom, and a few minutes later, came out holding her little months-old baby girl. She fixed the child a bottle and then came back and sat down across from me.

I felt so sad. The house was a mess. There were dirty dishes in the sink. There was the smell of cat urine, and other aromas that were just plain vile. Outside, a police siren could be heard in the neighborhood. Everything was just so awful. And there was this girl in a tattered bathrobe, with unkempt hair, feeding her child…

…and the baby was looking up at her mother with adoring eyes!

What I saw was not what the baby saw.

Because babies do not know sin.

So…what do you suppose it means that God came into our world as a baby?

What does the Christ Child see when he looks up at his teenage mother, his confused step-father, and those smelly shepherds from the fields? What does the Christ Child see when the magi come from distant places and a different religion altogether?

Most importantly, what does the Christ Child see when he looks at YOU?