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Christmas The Sacred Ordinary
Experience the Sacred Ordinary of
Christmas
In God's hands, even the most humble moments can be blessed
by the sacred.
Year after year,
Christmastime arrives in a flourish with all the trimmings, and the world is
tempted to upscale, overspend and outdo.
But isn't it the small,
almost insignificant moments that actually make Christmas grand?
Maybe it's the smiling face
of a 4-year-old as she offers you a home-made gift. Or it's a few words written
in a card from a much-missed old friend.
A Humble Scene in Bethlehem
Such
simple moments capture the importance of Christmas, perhaps because they allow
us to more closely share the wonders of that first night in Bethlehem.
Instead of worldly splendor
and royalty, God chose a nondescript evening, a humble scene, and ordinary
people named Mary and Joseph to share in something majestic — something truly
wondrous.
The angels' voices were more
glorious than any symphony today, and the sky was adorned with starlight that
would outshine any modern light display.
As we gather with friends and
family this Christmas, let's notice the simple moments that offer us nothing
more than joy and love.
And let's remind one another
that in God's hands, the humblest of humans can be used for remarkable
things, and even the most ordinary of moments can be blessed by the
sacred.
Just as they were long ago.
Mary Was Just a Girl
There
didn't seem to be anything extraordinary about Mary; she wasn't wealthy or
powerful or even from a famous town.
She was just a girl.
But God chose her to
bring the world the most important person who would ever live.
Gabriel came to Mary's house
in Nazareth to tell her what was going to happen. As soon as she saw him, she
became nervous.
The angel reassured her that
everything was going to be fine, and he began to explain that God had chosen
her for a very special role.
Mary's hands shook as she
listened to the angel.
"You will have a Son, and His name
will be Jesus," he said. "He will be
the Son of God, the One who was promised so long ago. And His kingdom will
never, ever end."
She was wide-eyed and
confused, knowing that she could hardly have a baby when she was still a
virgin.
"How?" she
whispered, trying to understand.
"It may seem impossible to you, but
God can do anything," Gabriel explained. "And your cousin Elizabeth? The one who has never been able to
have a baby? Well, she's pregnant, too."
Mary didn't know how all of
this would happen, but she believed God could do whatever He wanted to do. She
bowed low to the angel with tears in her eyes.
"I am the Lord's; let it happen
however He chooses," she said to Gabriel. And with that, the
angel left.
Gabriel Visits Zechariah
Mary
hurried to get her things together, setting out for the hill country of Judah
to see Elizabeth.
Not long before, the angel
Gabriel had visited Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah, with good news as well.
"Your wife Elizabeth is going to
have a son, and he won't be just an ordinary boy," Gabriel
explained. "You will name him John,
and you should know this: he will prepare the way for the Son of God."
Just as the angel had
predicted, Elizabeth became pregnant. She thanked God for giving her a baby.
Little did she know that the
same angel who had come to her husband would also speak to her cousin Mary, and
their lives were about to be woven together in a most incredible way.
It took Mary several days to
reach Judah, and as soon as she walked into Elizabeth's house, she called out
for her dear cousin.
When she did, the baby in
Elizabeth's belly jumped. Immediately, Elizabeth knew something amazing had
happened.
She stared at Mary, shocked
by what God had revealed to her.
The Birth of John
"Your baby!" Elizabeth shouted joyfully. "I know who He is!"
Elizabeth's face grew pale as
she considered how close she was to the holiness of God Himself.
"What have I done to deserve being
near to you, the one chosen as the mother of our Lord?"
Elizabeth asked her cousin.
"Elizabeth, I'm just a girl. There's
nothing special about me," Mary said. "But God has asked for my obedience,
and I have given it to Him."
She began to thank God for
all the wonderful things He had already done, and while the baby kicked and
wiggled inside, she praised Him for what was to come.
Mary stayed with Elizabeth
for three more months, and eventually went home as she neared the day of Jesus'
birth.
The time came for Elizabeth
to have her baby, and when she delivered him, she told her friends and
relatives that his name would be John.
The Trip to Bethlehem
Zechariah
looked at his newborn baby, sleeping in Elizabeth's arms.
"It is finally happening," he
said in a hushed voice, glancing at the crowd around him. "We are going to be rescued, and the light from the Messiah's
life will flood the darkness forever."
It was the truth.
The sin that had followed
them from the garden until now would finally be overcome through one child:
Jesus. God, in His mercy, was going to send them a Redeemer.
Months later, Mary's belly
was full, and she knew she was getting close to the day she would finally meet
her Son.
"We have to go, Mary,"
Joseph said. "We really don't have a
choice. It'll take us several days to get there, but I'll do all I can to make
it comfortable for you."
Caesar Augustus wanted to
know how many people there were in his empire, and the best way to count all
the people was to have them return to their hometowns.
For Joseph and Mary, that
meant riding their donkeys 80 miles from Nazareth to Joseph's hometown of
Bethlehem.
They saddled up the donkeys
and began traveling with all the others who were heading that way.
Once they reached Bethlehem,
Mary was sure of one thing.
The Birth of Jesus
The
baby was coming. "Joseph,"
she whispered, "it's almost
time."
They hurried to the nearest
inn to find a room, but the innkeeper shook his head. There was no room, and
time was short.
Joseph took Mary to the place
were the animals were kept because there was no room anywhere else. Mary
delivered the baby Jesus there.
As soon as He was born, Mary
gently wrapped the Baby Jesus in blankets and held Him closely to her chest.
Joseph reached for Mary's
face, tenderly wiping the sweat from her flushed cheeks.
And there, in the midst of
the braying donkey and the straw-covered ground, the Savior of the world
breathed in the night air for the first time.
His fingers opened and closed
slowly, and His heart beat like His mother's. Like ours.
He slept in peace while the
angels sang praise in a nearby field, telling the shepherds of His birth.
"The Christ is here," the
angels declared. "He has been
born!"
A bright light shone around
them while the shepherds stared into the great holy.
Shepherds Visit Mary and Joseph
Other
than Joseph and Mary, they were the first on earth to know.
Not the kings and queens, or
the wealthiest and most famous people in the land. Not the religious leaders or
the most powerful rulers.
He could have been born
anywhere, in any number of ways that would have commanded attention, but He
wasn't.
"You will find Him in a manger
wrapped in swaddling clothes," the angels continued. "He is the promised One."
The angels disappeared, and
the shepherds knew they must go and find Him.
As they entered Bethlehem,
they came upon the humble place where the animals were kept and saw a man and a
woman holding a newborn baby.
The baby was swaddled in
cloth exactly as the angels had said He would be, and the shepherds fell to
their knees in awe.
"Angels came to us," they
said, "and they told us of the
Child." "He is the One we have been waiting for," they
whispered.
High in the night sky, a star
moved steadily toward the stable, guiding the wise men to where He was.
They followed it eagerly,
knowing it was leading them to the Christ child.
For many months, maybe even
years, they traveled underneath the star until it finally settled in Bethlehem
above the house where Mary and Joseph were.
As they entered the house,
their knees bent in reverence.
"Blessed King of David," they
cried, "we have come to worship You
and offer You gifts."
They placed gold,
frankincense, and myrrh near the child.
Everything that had gone
wrong with the world would be made right through this Child. The Holy being
filled with the breath of humanity.
Jesus.
The World Was Never the Same Again
With
every passing day Mary and Joseph watched as He grew like any other child; His
feet outgrowing His sandals while He learned to feed Himself and to speak the
words they taught Him.
It wasn't the way many people
expected the Savior to come into the world, but that's exactly why it happened
the way it did.
From His first cry in the
manger, God wanted us to know that He was like us.
Or rather, that we were like
Him.
One young woman.
One yes.
One manger in a small town.
One Baby who brought the
peace of God to the people of the world.
One night where the ordinary
kissed the sacred, never to be the same again.
Taken
from For Such A Time as This by
Angie Smith. Copyright © 2014 by Angie Smith. Used by permission
of B&H Publishing.
For Such a Time as This illuminates 40 stories from the perspective of
prominent women of the Bible, including Eve, Sarah and Hagar, Esther, Mary
Magdalene, Gomer and more, with vivid and historical accuracy by
bestselling author Angie Smith and illustrator Breezy Brookshire.
One of
the most popular speakers and bloggers in the country, Angie Smith is the
best-selling author of Mended, I Will Carry You, What Women Fear, and Seamless.
She holds a Master's degree in developmental psychology from Vanderbilt
University and lives with her husband, Todd (lead singer of Dove Award-winning
group Selah), and daughters in Nashville, Tenn.
Best-Selling Author and Popular Speaker
Angie
Smith is a popular speaker, best-selling author, and blogger. Her greatest
passion is to make the BIble feel accessible and relevant by sharing her ups
and downs along the way as she encourages others in their faith. She lives with
her husband and daughters in Nashville, Tennessee.
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