Christmas Thoughts

It seems that each year, the Christmas story takes on more and more meaning in my life and a piece that I never took much time to consider really astounds and amazes me. This year there are two things. The first is the obedience of those individuals God orchestrated His story through. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, the shepherds, and Simeon. What if just one of those people had decided not to obey the message the angel brought them or they had in a dream? What if Mary had told God she didn't want to give birth to the Messiah and raise him for God's kingdom? What if Joseph had ignored the dream he had and decided to ditch Mary, believing she had cheated on him, and went to find another more suitable wife? The Wise Men could have easily ignored the message of their dream and went to tell Herod exactly where to find the new King, hoping for some kind of reward or riches for their information. If just one person had been disobedient or had not followed through on their part, how different the story would have played out.

I think about the scrutiny that Mary faced as a young girl, pregnant and not yet married. How scary for her to have to stand up to her parents and tell them she was being truthful in saying an angel visited her and that she really was still a virgin. Can you imagine a teenager trying to pull that one over her parents today? The looks she must have gotten as she went about her daily life, the whispers behind her back as she walked through her town or village. And Joseph! People probably thought he was crazy for believing Mary's crazy story of being impregnated by the Holy Spirit! Can you imagine the grief he got from his peers for choosing to stay with her and marry her anyway? What an amazing struggle to walk through even before they were a married couple! I imagine Joseph had a completely different idea of what it would have looked like to raise his first son. Instead, he and Mary were raising the Son of God and had absolutely no idea, or control, over how His life would turn out. If they had known the incredibly cruel way He would die, not knowing He would be raised from the dead, would they have changed their minds? 

The second thing that has really struck me this year is God's silence in the years before the Christmas Story played out. I'm not just talking a year or two or a decade or so. It was 400 years off God not talking to His people! I think about the times in my life it seemed God was being silent and how torturous and long those periods can seem. But entire generations of people were born and died, living their entire lives not hearing a single peep from their Creator. It's true that the Jewish people had completely disregarded the laws of God and were living in incredible sin and opposition to God. But 400 years of silence? I can't even fathom! And then when God did decide to speak, one of the first people He came to was a young woman, barely in her teens, telling her she would carry and give birth to His Son. 

I think about Simeon in the temple. He had vowed to live and serve God for as long as it took, because God promised him he would see His Son before his death. I wonder if he got up every day thinking, "Maybe today will be the day!!" and the actual day that Mary and Joseph walked through the temple taking him completely unaware, as the most amazing works of God often happen in my own life when I least expect them. How his heart must have started pounding and the joy filled his entire being as he realized who that little baby was! Finally! God's promise had come true! Can you imagine the look on Mary's face, or the sense of dread in her spirit, as Simeon told her that because of her precious baby boy, a sword would pierce her heart?? 

So many complexities and small details in the birth of the little boy we celebrate today! May we never forget that without that little feed trough, there would be no cross and without that cross, and an unspeakable sacrifice, we would not have the hope and promise of eternity with Him! Merry Christmas!