And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. Luke 1:31 (NLT)
Not yet married to Joseph, a teenage girl living in suburbia, ordinary and normal – Mary was paid a visit by an angel who told her Gods plan. A crazy, impossible, ludicrous, ridiculous, inconceivable plan. A real “face palmer.” She was to give birth to the saviour of the universe, the long awaited one, the son of God. AND she was to fall pregnant without ever having been with a man. A virgin birth.
Impossible.
Equally as challenging, being unmarried and pregnant put Mary in a very precarious situation. She would have to explain everything to Joseph and hope that he would believe and trust her. Joseph had every right (culturally) to reject Mary, and her family had every right (culturally) to evict her from the home. She had very few rights and there was no welfare system… Often unmarried pregnant girls ended up as slaves, exiles, living on the streets and turning to things like prostitution. If Joseph and Mary’s family weren’t willing to stand by her, she stood to lose her security, her family, and even her baby.
In the lead up to Christmas and all that it involves, invokes, inspires – or the space that it reveals in your heart, know that nothing is impossible for God. The dreams that He’s whispered into your heart, the plans He’s shown you, the path He wants you to go down… No matter how impossible they may seem, no matter how dark the night was when you heard the whisper of the promise… BELIEVE.
God smashed every human idea and concept of what His salvation would look like… it didn’t come wrapped in perfection. It was shrouded in impossibility, shadowed by fear. But hope was not squashed, and the impossible became tangible, real… possible.
When you wake up on Christmas morning, before you head out to the lounge-room to unwrap gifts with excited children, or eat breakfast with family, or perhaps be confronted by what you don’t have and what you may have lost… remember that on the very first Christmas day, a normal girl, who faced impossible odds, gave birth to a miracle.
Jesus.
And in His name is the Hope of all the world… and yours.
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