Luke 2:11-14
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests.”
Isn’t it amazing how the prophecy of the Messiah, fell into place through the seemingly normal order of things? God had a plan for our redemption and He worked that plan, through the divine supernatural as well as the “normal” events. Even though Mary’s pregnancy and the birth of Christ certainly didn’t follow human protocol, the payment of taxes was mandatory calling this couple on a journey to Bethlehem at a crucial time. At “Just the right time!”
God still has a plan for the world and for all of His children, as He graces us with His divine intervention leading us along our new normal, daily routines to ultimately bring us to the place where He desires us to be. He brought a sweet kind of serendipity into the lives of Mary and Joseph and into the Shepherd’s night that lonely night on the hillside when He dipped into the normal and the mundane and brought something beautiful into the world. He brought life eternal through the birth of His Son so that we could have a part in His beautiful plan of salvation. Mary and Joseph were faithful to follow His leading and direction through the supernatural, the normal, the tough spots and the rough roads. The shepherds abiding in their normal fields on a normal night were blown away with the glorious surprise that broke through the heavens and filled them with an awe, a joy and a passion that drove them to find the Messiah that had come!
Are you still searching for Him or have you found Him? Let’s be obedient on our journey, even in the mundane, and in the ho-hum of our lives. Let’s be found faithful in the excitement of the supernatural as well as in the difficulties and mundane of “a new normal.”
Friends, if you truly know Him, be on the lookout as God may very well be planning some sweet and inspiring serendipity in your life. He can break through the normal leaving you in awe with an element of beautiful surprise! Don’t mistake it for mere coincidence! His surprises have been well planned to breakthrough at just the right time in your life! If you don’t know Him, He’s in the business of changing lives and my friend, your transformed life is that beautiful break that you search for maybe unknowingly! Go with the shepherds, in your heart, and seek for Him. When you find Him, embrace Him and find forgiveness for your sin that will set you free.
John 8: 36
“If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
John 8: 12
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Romans 8: 12
“Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
So beautiful one, with beautiful soul threshing about, we’ve a Saviour of light who was born into the deep darkness of this world and born into the bleakness of our world and born into the chaos of our world to bring hope to our world, because He came to live among us just to die for us. So how can His death paint a pretty picture for us at Christmas time? Thing is, He didn’t stay in the manger! He grew, He lived, He taught, He felt, He hurt just as we do. He knows our pain, He feels our rejection, our loss, our chaos. Just because He’s been there, all the way to the painful rejection and agony of the cross but it wasn’t the final chapter. He didn’t stay there. His empty grave became our victorious moment when death lost its sting! Because He conquered death, He made a way for us to escape its penalty.
Yeah, our hopeless, helpless world! His world that He so loved! His birth was God’s plan of action to set a really messed up world right with forgiveness and salvation. But the baby in the manger had to grow up and go through the agony of the cross.
I wonder if you remember or even know the Hope born there that night in that crude stable, is as close as your heartbeat? Does the awesome gift of Hope from God resonate and radiate within you and from you? Does it affect your everyday living? Your thinking? Can you feel the depth of its magnitude deep in your soul, or have you sunk deep into that horrible conundrum of busy-ness and COVID chaos?
What a sweet gift the baby “Jesus” presented to the world in that wretched manger of straw surrounded by everything ‘less than perfect!’ Grasp, if you will, that picture of Hope for a broken and imperfect world! Not a COVID world but a sin world! Then reach out to receive a fresh touch for you! Thing is, it’s so much more than Hope isn’t it? Hope brings a joy and a peace of mind and a really gentle hug from God to message us that it’s ok. Everything really is ok”, and in that “million and one things” to do list, His gift of Hope is the stable banner at the top to get you through.
❤
Christ’s coming as a newborn baby was God’s gift of humility to humanity. God, the creator of all things, left the brilliance and the highest of heavenly heights and sweet and majestic glories of heaven to enter into our wretched world! He came fragile, helpless and in need of love, care, nurturing and the tender hearts of a mom and dad. His name was Jesus and He grew into a child, a teen and on to a young adult! He walked among us experiencing life as we know it yet because of His divine genealogy and inheritance, He was without sin.
So, this Christmas Advent season of celebration, savour that sweet and powerful hope that His birth begins to bring into a world of need, for such a time as this! Yeah, His death and resurrection went down in history and because of His whole gift of sacrifice, there is now a totally awesome new life in Christ available for us today. He can be present in our lives as we live them out daily in His presence. Seek Him, as the wise men did, find Him as the shepherds did, Praise Him as Mary did, right where you are, in your less than perfect surroundings and situations, and be in awe of a Savior and a mediator, sent by God, who came to serve, to seek and to save. Isaiah’s prophesy of so many years ago did come true when the promise of a Heavenly Royal King to be born was a promise of hope for a needy people. Let that same Hope fill you and your beautiful soul with a glorious wonder and anticipation as we begin this first week of Advent! Isaiah 9:6″For to us a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 