The more I unwrap the Christmas story, the more amazed I am that God would orchestrate such profound events in such a seeming ordinary fashion. That he would choose to come into our world, in the form of a baby, through a poor, insignificant teenage girl is not how I would write the story. It is revealing, in that we see a God who uses ordinary people to write an extraordinarily beautiful story of love and grace. What may have appeared to some as a routine birth of just another baby into a conflicted dark world, was one of the most beautiful and profound events of all time.
Zacharias was one of the first to recognize the significance of these events, when he excitedly exclaimed in Luke chapter 1:68-69
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David”
Today, it is our responsibility, as followers of Jesus, to light the way to the Redeemer. Until the gift is unwrapped, the benefits are not realized.
We see, in the Christmas story, God’s purposeful, intentional desire to reveal himself to His people in a very personal way and fulfill the covenant he made with Abraham long before the birth of Jesus. We are called, as was John the Baptist, “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
May we shine as the star shown long ago, and draw others to a Redeemer, who was willingly born in a manager, to be crucified on a cross, because of His love for us.
He came to set the captives free! What greater gift could we proclaim?
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