Advent Reading ~ In His Word ~ December 23, 2020
God bless you merry gentlemen and women, let nothing you
dismay….
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11
Two more days until the day we celebrate the birth of
Christ! Let us start now! Let us celebrate for three days! Many of us have
already begun the celebration of this Christ who has come to save the lost!
Three days can be a long time. Mary and Joseph found this to
be so true when Jesus was 12, they thought they had lost him. He was found of
course; he had been sitting in the Temple visiting the religious teachers asking
questions and teaching them as well with such understanding that it amazed the
scholars! When it was all said and done the Word of God says that Mary again
stored up all these things in her heart.
When they could not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to
search for him there. Three days later
they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious
teachers, listening to them, and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his
understanding and his answers. His parents did not know what to think. “Son,”
his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have
been frantic, searching for you everywhere.” “But why did you need to search?”
he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did
not understand what he meant. Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was
obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. Luke 2:45-51
There is a song called ‘Mary did You Know?’ that sparks
curiosity, but as we read through the life of Christ we see when she stored
things up in her heart knowing God was there at work and that gives me the hope
that she knew who He really was and never doubted. So as my daughter said the
other day “Um.. yes!” she did!
The idea of raising a son to give him to God is a daunting
thought, but to raise the Son of God must have been so amazing! Such wisdom
this child would have had! It would have made first time parenting a bit
different from how we have it, I think.
Throughout different traditions of the world some people
hide the baby until Christmas morning, but we are blessed because He is already
here. We can see the things written in the Word that she pondered and treasured
in her heart. The Word tells us that where our treasure is there our heart is also,
so Mary treasured these things, her son Jesus was in her heart. She had to have
known Who He was but so much of his life may have been unrevealed to her.
Another blessing we have in the Word is that we get to see the full story
played out before us. We really have no reason not to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and be saved.
As you wrap up your gifts, and decorate the boxes and bags,
think of a way to introduce the story of Jesus into your holiday celebration of
the life of Christ this year! Some sing Carols, some read from the Bible, or
watch a movie about His birth, many families bake birthday cakes for Jesus to
teach their kids why we celebrate. Whatever you do be sure and celebrate Jesus,
not just a guy in a red suit that began as a Christ follower who gave gifts to
the poor children but share the story of the amazing birth of a babe n a stable
of sorts who lay in an animal troth for his first bed. Tell them the story of
how the Angels came and spoke to people; angels are real! They carried the
story of who Christ was! They celebrated and sang out; “peace on earth and
goodwill toward men” as they rejoiced and then went back to heaven!
Tell His story this week, this year, perhaps even today? In
Jesus’ name…