 From our family to yours, much love and Merry Christmas! What a wonderful time the Christmas season is! Everywhere you go, beautiful carols are playing, reminding each hearer that the King of Kings came down to live among us. Trees are decorated, reminding us that the Light of the World shines brightly still. Everything slows down, at least for a few days, and we have time to think and reflect, and to enjoy our family and friends. We have time to remember the shocking truth that Christmas reveals..
It is so hard to wait. How humorous it is, then, that waiting seems to be what most of life consists of. Waiting for the semester to be over, waiting for that phone call, waiting in line - again, waiting for life to really begin. The happy bursts in life of beginnings and endings are sometimes drowned in the tedium of seemingly endless bouts of waiting.
The Bible is clear that this problem is not new or modern. Abraham and Sarah longed for a child, and everyone knows they had a little trouble waiting. Joseph waited for years in prison. David faced many long nights of waiting and wondering while Saul pursed him to kill him. The prophets and the whole nation of Israel longed and waited for the Messiah, their Deliverer. Waiting is nothing new. Waiting for direction from God in your life, waiting for a spouse, waiting for a child, waiting for the weekend, for retirement, for…. Luke 1: 26-38
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her |
Hi! I'm Mary - mother to two wonderful grown daughters, wife to an incredible husband, and loving our life in the piney woods of Texas... (read more!)
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January 2025
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