I have just turned 60 and as someone brought up in a Christian home where the Bible was read around the breakfast table as I grew up, the Christmas story as told by Luke is hugely familiar. It makes writing a note about it quite a challenge. None of this was familiar to the participants in this drama – the chapter is STUFFED with extraordinary events. Now we hear this story every Christmas – and as many of you are full-on involved with FoL, the whole Christmas thing must be associated with huge enjoyment but also full-on busyness with church. So let’s just stop now – in a tinsel-free warm summer’s evening/morning and listen to this account again.

Luke doesn’t spend much time thinking about Joseph or the actual birth, remember the focus of Chapter 1. Luke is not too bothered – that happens all the time! BUT look at all these points of affirmation in the story, all the places that God sanctifies. Sanctify – God makes holy – He makes US holy; He makes the everyday HOLY by inhabiting it; by inhabiting US.

God goes before and inhabits all the surprise and delight: the shepherds, the innkeeper, Simeon and Anna – the everyday and the extraordinary come together as God touches the earth as a tiny baby. Astonishment, surprise, delight characterise the encounters in this passage until the final section, when these delighted parents appear to lose the Son of God!

Looking at the account as a whole, it’s Mary’s thoughts that are shared – twice – she’ll need to store up these astonishing scenes as she follows her son from a distance to the cross and into the garden.

Jesus’ presence even as a baby transformed the everyday into the miraculous, the sanctified.

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Questions:

Where do you need that astonishing, transformational presence most today? How can you re-establish that sense of awe filled wonder?

Prayer:

Fill me with awe and wonder for Your great gift to us Lord, bless me with a fresh encounter with You through the presence of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.