Echoes of CHRISTmas: a new light

Luke 2:7

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

I honestly was at a loss for what to write this CHRISTmas. I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what in the world to write for CHRISTmas. But then the other day we were reading one of my moms favorite CHRISTmas books. It's called the greatest CHRISTmas pageant ever, and it's one of the funniest books ever! It's about this church that puts on the same CHRISTmas pageant ever, the same people play the same roles, the same things happen and nothing changes. But then one year the Herdmans decide to join. Now the Herdmans are the trouble makers in town, they're the ones people go to when things burn down mysteriously, or something happens that's in the least bit suspicious. So the Herdmans join the pageant and steal all the main roles and pretty much disrupt the whole thing. But all throughout the rehearsals they make everyone think, really think about the meaning of CHRISTmas and make people look at CHRISTmas from a new perspective. And then when the time comes for the pageant, it is both the best and worst CHRISTmas pageant ever. I mean yeah the wise men did bring a turkey instead of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and yeah the only line in the play that was spoken was by the angel who said "Hey! Unto you a child is born!!" But it was the best because those Herdmans, the dirty beat up Herdmans, showed truly what CHRISTmas would've been like, it wasn't pretty, it wasn't clean, it was real life and real life isn't clean or pretty. The CHRISTmas story has been modernized and beautified by our culture, and we've lost the true beauty of CHRISTmas by doing so. We've traded real people for plastic nativities. But let's take a journey back to Bethlehem that night, or actually lets start in Nazareth of Galilee with a young girl of no more than 16, her name is Mary. 

Luke 1:26-27, 30-32 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary... And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

We all know this story like the back of our hand. Angel appears to girl, gives her a message that she's gonna have a baby, girl goes to Bethlehem with her husband and has the baby, and let's throw some shepherds and wise men and sheep in there too. No! It's sooo much more than that. This was the second time in over 400 years that an angel had appeared and spoken to anyone! This messiah, the son of God, was someone the Jews had been waiting for for thousands of years. This was no small thing, imagine that you had to wait for someone for thousands of years, and then your children, and your children's children, and then eventually the one on whom you were waiting to send this person suddenly stopped talking to you for 400 years! Does that put it into perspective for you. This event right here was the most amazing things that had happened in the last 400 years and maybe longer than that. And this young woman, this girl who probably hasn't seen much of the world was given the blessing of carrying the savior, the son of God? This young woman from the little town of Nazareth that no one ever regarded was carrying the one who would save the world! Why not a queen? Why not someone of position? I'll tell you why. Because this little Mary, this young woman probably had more purity and obedience than the greatest noblewoman on earth. She was chosen because God looks at the heart, and Mary's heart found favor with God. But this Angel's message was also one of potential doom. You see Mary was a virgin. And when those around her saw her pregnant without being married, they would have stoned her. In that culture if a woman willfully lost her virginity without being married, their law required that that woman be stoned. Now you're beginning to understand why the Angel said don't be afraid. And with that fact in mind read Mary's response to those words from the Angel. 

Luke 1:38

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Whoa! It was quite possible that when those around her found out she was pregnant that they would drag her out of the city, grab big rocks, not pebbles but rocks as big as they could grab, and throw them as hard as they could at her. And Mary has the courage and the strength to say "I am your servant Lord, let it be so." Whoa! What courage! What strength! If only we had that courage. If only the church had that kind of strength. The courage to say "let it be so" even if what he was asking you to do was hard or uncomfortable. The strength to stand up and do the Lord's will without fear or compromise. If the church had as much strength as the young woman who was the mother of Christ, than I do believe that this world would be different. We wouldn't be afraid to do God's will when he asked us to do something uncomfortable. We wouldn't become weak at the knees at the thought of sharing the gospel or offending someone. If we, as the bride of Christ, had Mary's courage and strength, then the church would be a lot different. Now I'm not catholic, but I have a lot of respect and admiration for Mary. Remember she was most likely no more than 16 here, and to have that kind of strength and courage! It doesn't surprise me that she was able to stand before the cross and watch her eldest son suffer so. 

When I picture Mary I don't see a pure, white faced woman with rosy cheeks. I see a young woman, not afraid to take a stand. A woman with a gentle heart and fire in her eyes. I see a faced lined with wisdom and courage beyond her years and I see a face smudged with the dirt of hard work. Now there's still more to come and more to look at. But for now I leave you with this. Let us look at CHRISTmas this year in a new light. In a way we've never looked at it before. 

Hear the echoes of Mary the mother of Christ, and be inspired by her strength and courage. Let's all be as courageous as Mary this year. 

 Matthew 1:23

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).