“The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to
a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” Isaiah 7:14b
(NLT)
I feel as though every year, Christmas becomes more stressful. What
food to make, putting up the perfect décor in the house, cleaning and making
room for guests, getting in all the family gatherings. Head out to the malls and people are spending
hundreds (and yes even thousands) of dollars on gifts they are expected to
give.
The expectations we have placed upon ourselves, our spouses,
and our families, which are usually unintentional, slowly become the dread that
is the anxiety that leads up to Christmas.
This year, I began to think of Mary and her journey
through out the Christmas story. (Maybe it is because Samuel is very interested in the baby Jesus this year in his little people nativity set :). The baby Jesus is near and dear to his heart. :)) When
the angel appeared to her the anxiety, excitement, nervousness, and the
expectations she must have had going through her mind when she thought of
giving birth to the Son of God. Oh, I
bet she didn’t expect that her son, the Savior of the world, would be born
amongst the livestock, and placed in a manger.
But it was God’s perfect plan.
All of those expectations Mary held prior to the birth of
Jesus in no way compare to a mother holding her child, and not just any child; our
Immanuel “God with us”. Like Mary, we
can remember through the expectations, the stress, and the hustle of Christmas,
that the greatest gift is that of our Immanuel.
Our God and King who came down from His throne, to walk the earth with
man, to be the savior for all. May you be filled with the peace of our God who is the giver of life, the creator of the world, and who holds each of you in His hands.
The Weirauch's
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