I was stunned by the question that my Chinese, non-Christian friend asked. We had been studying the Bible for months. Surely he knew me better than that; I wouldn’t kill any baby, especially not a baby Jesus!

Still reeling in dizziness from the question, I hesitated to answer. Why did he ask? We had just read about King Herod who had sent soldiers to kill all of the babies in Bethlehem. It wasn’t until later that I understood why he asked.

His father-in-law had worked for the Communist Party. His job was to find and escort pregnant women, who already had a baby, to the hospital or clinic in order to get an abortion of the second child, even against their wishes. Often he would know the young women or their families, so he would call them the night before to warn them that he was coming.

All very frightening, and similar to Herod’s soldiers.

His question was really this: if the government required you to assist in aborting babies, would I do it?

I didn’t get to that question, but I did reflect on his original question. I had paused; of course I would like to say “no,” that since God is first in my life I would never kill a baby as Herod tried. But as I thought about my wayward heart, I realized that if God was not first, then I would probably kill too. So I replied:

That’s the question we all have, and we all must answer it. For Herod to let Jesus live would mean for him to no longer be the king. For us to let Jesus live in our heart, we can no longer live as the king of our lives, we must bow to Jesus in every area of lives. That is not easy to do, no one wants to give up their authority, especially a king, and especially over their own life.

That’s the question for each of us, will we let the baby Jesus be the Lord of our life, or would we kill the baby so we can be Lord?

We are so glad that we have given up our lives. And that together with you, we can serve this Lord.

Merry Christmas, may we each hold this dear Jesus close to our hearts, until his Kingdom has come.