2010 Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Devotions

CHRISTMAS EVE
Nancy Mitchell

Light all the candles on the Advent Wreath.

Read Luke 2:1-20

The story begins simply. The Emperor ordered that a census be taken, which required everyone within the Roman Empire to go back to their hometowns to be registered. Joseph traveled the approximately 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, accompanied by Mary, his fiancée. When they arrived, the town of Bethlehem was full to bursting with others there for the census, so there wasn’t a spare room in town. Fortunately someone offered them the use of a stable where they could stay temporarily, and there Mary had her baby, Jesus.

It’s just a simple story about two ordinary people.

There’s Mary, a young woman in the later stages of pregnancy, traveling with a man to whom she’s engaged but hardly knows. She’s separated from her family for the first time, undoubtedly lonely and homesick. She knows she’s going to be having this baby by herself, no mother, no friends, no one to help with the birth, to comfort her, to look after the child so Mary could rest. Understandably, she’s anxious about what is to come, frightened even.

And with her there’s Joseph, a carpenter, unsure of whether he’s doing the right thing in accepting Mary as his wife, forced to endure the disapproval of family and friends for not putting her aside once she told him she was pregnant. After all, they’re not married yet. Was it really God’s will that he marry her?

Then something astonishing happens. An angel appears to the shepherds in the hills outside of Bethlehem, proclaiming the birth of the Messiah and telling them where to find Him. Frightened though they are, the shepherds do as the angel commands them and descend into town, where they do indeed find the newborn baby. The shepherds are thrilled at the sight, and immediately start telling everyone they see about this amazing event.

Here’s where the simple story about two ordinary people ends and the unbelievable, the miraculous begins! God in the person of a baby, a baby born just like one of ours, bursts upon the scene, and nothing has ever been the same since! Every day, every night, God comes to us, ordinary people like Mary and Joseph, like the shepherds, and asks us to welcome the unbelievable, the miraculous into our lives – and when we do, we will never be the same again.

Prayer
Infant King,
you burst into our lives when we least expect it.
You turn them into something unbelievable,
something miraculous.
As Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds
did that holy night so long ago,
we ask that you open our hearts to you
that we may welcome your extraordinary love
into our ordinary lives.
Amen.

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Updated March 13, 2011