Sometimes it’s not easy to have faith. Have you ever been there? You wonder where God is amid your pain. It can be a job loss, a death, a relationship ends, a bad grade on a final exam, sickness . . . we could go on and on with reasons to struggle with faith. We all go through this to one extent or another.
Yet, one of the great aspects which I think we often miss at Christmas time is the fact that God cares about the world. In fact, more than caring, God loves you and I. That’s the only reason He sent His Son into the world. It’s all because of love. Jesus came into the world to save us from our sinfulness and to have a relationship with us.
We wait for Him, not so that we can open presents, that’s a side benefit, but we wait for Jesus to arrive so we can experience His presence. He can bless us with salvation, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, with a renewed sense of purpose and passion.
There are so many people, in fact, who need the power of Jesus in their lives. We need Him to help us heal those fractured relationships. We need His help to break down those walls we’ve built. We need Him to bring us peace during our fear and anxiety. We need Jesus to restore our hearts, to give us hope, to give us strength and courage to face whatever comes our way.
Again, the God of the impossible tells of the impossible with the Christmas story …The Lord can enter human history via a woman’s womb, as a child. From a tomb can come resurrection and life, and the Holy Spirit can empower the world, from a church where there is none, and reach out to all the world. Who could have believed that there is such a redemption, such a hope for sinners, who could have dared dreamed of this fantastic story of God’s love? Indeed, nothing is impossible with God!
God chose this teenage girl, Mary, to bring His Son into the world, to care for Him, to nurture Him, to teach Him how to walk and talk and read and pray and obey, and to stay with Him until the very end.
Mary believed! Mary had faith in what God told her. Faith in what she could not see. It must have seemed far fetched, but after visiting with Elizabeth, it had to become more and more real. God would fulfill the promises He made to her.
And in the same way, God will fulfill His promises to us as well…
I’m not sure what Mary was pondering in her heart, but I wonder if she would remind herself of that day and tells herself – – – “It’s worth it. Every difficult day. Every whispered rumor. Every step of this journey. It’s all worth it, because look at what God has given me.”
Mary was a single woman, engaged but not married. She was a virgin, and she was faithful to God and the man He had placed in her life. Then the impossible happened: she became pregnant. She asked the angel, “How can this be? I’ve never been with a man.” And the angel said ~
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” – Luke 1:37
That’s it! That’s the entire answer to one of the deepest questions we can ask! The solution to your situation may seem impossible. Humanly speaking, maybe it is. But we believe in a God and we serve a God who is not bound by human limitations. Our God has and will continue to intervene in human history.
You may think that a broken relationship can’t be saved, but with God nothing is impossible. And if that relationship isn’t saved, you may think there is no way you could ever continue on your own. But with God nothing is impossible.
You may think there is no solution for your health problems, but with God nothing is impossible. And if your health problems are now a permanent part of your life, you may think there is no way you can ever learn to cope. But with God nothing is impossible.
Now we’ve heard this Christmas story before. In fact we’ve heard it so many times, its novelty has long since faded away, and we loose sight of how awesome this event really is- that God would enter human life with all its violence and corruption, to bring us hope, to rescue us from our sinfulness, to send us Jesus our deliverer.
If there has ever been a Christmas when we need to remember this – God loves us, God gave his Son for us, Jesus came to be born among us – if ever there was a Christmas we need to remember that nothing will be impossible with God, it’s this Christmas.
Because maybe, just maybe, Mary knew that what makes Christmas is God’s desire to enter into the lives of ordinary people, maybe yeah, Christmas is about God entering our ordinary world, and the willingness and openness of ordinary people to let God in.
I wonder, if we can, can we grasp a hold of how different that first Christmas was.
I wonder can we understand, just a little, the magnitude of the impact Gabriel’s message had on Mary’s future, and the magnitude of the impact it has on ours today, that it would mean blessing for the whole world.
I wonder can we understand, just a little, what it took for Mary to commit to the path she chose. I wonder can we comprehend the enormity of the commitment she made. I wonder can we follow her lead, even if in a small way. To know that being favored by God means God is with us, especially in the trials that are bound to come in the future.
I wonder. I hope we can.
