Christmas 2013

When Mary heard those world shattering words from the angel, it was not simply good news. It was a death sentence. Pregnancy outside of marriage was punishable by stoning. No wonder Mary ran away to the Judean Hills and Joseph needed an angelic visitation. Yet, that word became flesh in Mary and God protected her and her baby until that fateful night, alone in a smelly and putrid stable when she had to bear down on the head of the promise. Jesus was born into disease ridden filth. The stench from the animals, their urine and excreta would have been overwhelming for this petrified teenage mother. There was no midwife even though Bethlehem was full of Joseph's relatives, being the night of the census. Jesus was Mary's word made flesh and yet, she waited patiently for thirty years before anything "Godly" occurred at the hand of her son, the promise. Three years later, after miracle after miracle, multitude after multitude, Mary watch her promise, this "word" from the lips of an angel, her God given dream, this miracle from God, she watched it all die. When they took the lifeless body, broken, battered and bleeding from the cross, what was going through Mary's heart? What crisis of faith did she have to endure? For three days Mary must have besieged heaven with one question..why?
We know the rest.. and now, two thousand years later we celebrate the greatest story even known to mankind, a story that has endured, a living word, in the hearts of billions throughout the ages.
However, like you, like me, God planted an impossible word in a teenage girl's heart that had to be tested in the crucible of fire. We do not know Mary's struggles, but we can be assured that she was tested beyond her ability to believe. God broke through and Mary saw the overwhelming fulfilment of all that she had heard.
What is burning in your heart? What word has God planted deep inside your hopes and dreams. The Christmas story shows us that He is true to His word. I have seen that in my own life this year in the most extraordinary and yet glorious way. As you celebrate Christmas this year, be encouraged that His word in us is made flesh. He is faithful and trustworthy. Thank God for the Marys and Josephs of this world. You and I are one of them.
Merry Christmas from just another "pregnant" believer.
Geoff.