December 21 thru 27, 2009

Day One, Luke 1:46-49; It must have been a shock to Mary when the angel appeared with the message that her calling was to be the mother of the long awaited Savior. No doubt dozens of unspoken questions and doubts about her ability to mother this child swirled around her head as she tried to mentally get her arms around her calling. But like all people of faith must do in such situations, Mary yielded her doubts and questions to confidence that God knew what He was doing and that He would guide her and stand by her in everyway, all the way. Faced with uncertainty in our lives, when we follow Mary’s example and yield to our confidence in God instead of our questions and doubts we can join her song, “He who is mighty has done great things for me” because we know that our loving heavenly Father will see us through.

Day Two, Luke 1:5-23; Both Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah were past their prime when it came to conceiving a child. According to the story Zachariah was going about his duties as a priest when the angel appeared to him and informed him that “your prayer is heard”, indicating that he and Elizabeth had probably been praying for a baby for several years. From his response, the news seemed to catch Zechariah off guard. No doubt this couple had prayed expectantly for a child at first, but in later years their prayers had become a mere formality. This story teaches us that God not only hears our prayers, but answers them—not always at the time we expected or in the way we anticipated. Sometimes the answer gives us what we ask for, at other times it may redirect our desires in another direction, but many times it simply gives us a clearer understanding of why things are as they are. So keep praying and eventually, within your mind you will realize that “your prayer is heard” as you see things developing or working out according to God’s special plan for your life.

Day Three, Luke 2:1-8; Remember the church Christmas programs where the kids acted out the Christmas story? I recall being in one many years ago where the director of the program was not satisfied with the way the boy portraying the innkeeper said “I have no room for you.” She told him to “spit it out” and to be as hateful as possible. Unfortunately, this is the picture we most often have of the innkeeper. But in reality his decision not to let them stay in the inn could have been an act of kindness. According to some scholars of that period an inn was no place for a woman who about to give birth. An inn in biblical times was usually a large common area where people could sleep. Perhaps the innkeeper’s decision to put this couple up in the cave he used to shelter his guest’s animals was out of concern for her obvious condition. Could it be that one of the subtext of the Christmas story is that we need to guard against ascribing malicious intent to other people’s actions when we don’t really understand their reasons? Regardless of people’s motives, God’s purpose for us will always be fulfilled if we trust him, “And she gave birth to her first-born son…and laid him in a manger for there was no place for them in the inn.”

Day Four, Luke 2:15-18; Retailers usually expect the day after Christmas will be a very busy day because of people scurrying around in order to take advantage of after Christmas sales and trying to exchange merchandise. In our lesson for today, we find the shepherds scurrying around, but they were hurrying to respond to the message they had received from the angelic hosts. In a Christmas message from this text, my late father said that one of the greatest hindrances to most church people having something to testify about was their tendency to hear or read some good word from the Lord, think to themselves “That’s nice, I don’t have time to pursue it now, but I’ll really get into it later.” Of course things always seem to keep crowding in front of good intention and we never get around to “getting into it”. . Let’s resolve to be more like the shepherds, when they heard the good word from God, they immediately made time to check it out and experience it firsthand, then they had something to share with other people! “Let us go…and see this thing…which the Lord has made known to us…and when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them…and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.”

Day Five, Luke 2:8-14; This familiar story reminds us that Jesus birth was not just for the religious people but for those considered to be beyond the reach of religion. According to Marvin R. Vincent, D.D. , in “Word Studies in the New Testament” shepherds were under Rabbinic ban (which meant they were considered outside God’s love and covenant) due to the nature of their work which kept them from temple observances and from strict observance of Sabbath and other religious laws. Throughout the Bible, God turns men’s traditions upside down and He does it again by making the first announcement of the Savior’s birth to men who had been told time and time again that God couldn’t possible love them. As we unwrap our presents and celebrate with our family (people whom God obviously loves), why not take a moment to reflect on how to become a messenger of God’s grace to those we too often consider outside the scope of God’s concern? Perhaps we can volunteer at a shelter or mission, maybe we need to kinder to people who are different from us. Perhaps we need to change our attitude toward the people who don’t attend our church. “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”


Day Six, Luke 2:19-21; What has your response been to Christmas? Our lesson today illustrates two of the best responses we can make to the truths of Christmas. First, we are told that Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” This indicates that she made a deliberate effort to memorize the events of the day and spent time meditating on their significance. Someone once said that “faith waivers in the face of difficulties when memories of God’s care have faded.” Mary knew that the circumstances of Jesus birth and the special reason for his coming would produce trying and difficult times in the coming years, therefore she wanted to be certain that she could recall those wonderful moments which would affirm that God was indeed at work. The second response was that of the shepherds, we are told they “returned, glorying and praising God”. The usual take on this verse is that they returned to their flocks, but the previous verses indicate that they had been to see Mary and the baby, left and now we read that they returned. To me this indicates that they returned again and again to see mother and child. To fully grasp God’s mercy and love, it is not enough to just experience it and go on. We need to respond to it by returning over and over to find reassurance and renewal. Then we can live our lives continually “glorifying and praising God for all we (they) had heard and seen.”

Day Seven, Matthew 2:1-12; A look at the Christmas story would be incomplete without mentioning the Magi (even though their visit was probably a year or so after Jesus’ birth). Again, we find God turning long held traditions upside down! The first announcement of Jesus birth came to Jewish men considered beyond God’s covenant and grace by the Jewish religious leaders. Now we find God drawing non-Jewish people from a distant land to the Christ child by means of what many would consider superstition. These Magi were men who studied the stars in order to understand events. Seeing what they took to be a new star they concluded that it was a sign that a new king had been born. No doubt these men were also wealthy merchants, so it was natural for them to want to curry favor with the royal family into whose palace the child had been born. It is interesting that so many of us are guilty of wanting God to follow a procedures manual when it comes to the way he draws people and leads us. When God doesn’t follow what we consider established protocol we tend to question the veracity of someone’s experience; or we balk at following God’s guidance for our own lives. Certainly, we must be careful about following our emotions and we must “try the spirits”, but we also need to be careful about dismissing circumstances, coincidences and impressions as not being forms of God’s guidance for our lives. God doesn’t always do things the way we expect (or want) Him to, but when our minds are attuned to his still small voice, our lives can be changed dramatically. “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.”

Have a blessed and Joyous Christmas and
May God bless you all the way, everyday, in every way.
Robert Hidde