So your Christmas celebration is over. The plans for family
gatherings are accomplished memories now. The presents are unwrapped, the
surprises are known. Maybe you still have some decorations to stow away. Or maybe,
you are just longing to get the house back to normal. Still there are sweet
memories added to those you already have. Another year has come and gone.
I wonder what was running through Mary’s mind after the birth
of Jesus was an accomplished fact. She had remembered the angel’s announcement
over the nine months of her pregnancy. The pregnancy itself was a confirmation
of the reality of his visit. So too were the stinging words of others around
her once her “unplanned” pregnancy became known and obvious. The upheaval of her
life by a government required journey to Bethlehem just before her time of
delivery added to the uniqueness of the birth of her first child. Then there
were the crowds, no room in the local inns, and the necessity of camping out in
the nearby stable. What memories! What stories they would have to tell one
another. Certainly the reality of labor and the care of that little child made
the whole experience real and yet surreal.
Then the local shepherds came visiting to see the child of
promise that night. They were so excited speaking about more angels and God’s
glory. This story, their faces, their excitement added to the unusual yet very
normal birth of the boy Jesus. Yes, that was his name given to him by Mary’s fiancé,
Joseph. He too had spoken about an angel visit. That is what the angel Gabriel;
that was his name wasn’t it? The memory seemed so long ago. That is what
Gabriel had told her that she should name the baby. Joseph had been so kind. He
seemed doubtful at first. Mary had hated to hurt him but what could she had
said? She was pregnant and it wasn’t his child. All she knew was what the angel
had said. It was confusing how she could be pregnant now and yet so simple the
way that Gabriel had explained it. All Mary knew was that the power of the Most
High had been promised to come upon her by the Holy Spirit almost like the beginning
of time in the creation as Moses had written. And all this was emphasized by
the shepherds’ story of the visit by a host of angels singing the glory of God
in the heavens. And yet, in Mary’s arms lay a baby like so many other babies
she had seen, though none had belonged to her like this one.
God, angels, the Romans, and a host of others had changed
Mary’s life. Her plans for marriage, home, and family had been altered.
Everything was different and yet it was right. All we know is that after the
birth of Jesus in late hours of the night that Luke summed up Mary’s reaction
with these words, “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her
heart.” How she must thought and wondered. How she must have cherished the
memories of those events over the years. How she must have considered deeply
all that had been experienced, said, and reported to her about the little one
that lay in her arms so like any other baby and yet so unique.
The story had just begun. So much had all ready happened. Yet
so much more would be accomplished in the life of Jesus. He would surely change
the world and in ways that most wouldn’t anticipate. Mary would never be the
same. God would give her and Joseph a family and they would live in Nazareth but
it all would be different from what they had imagined. God in the person of the
LORD Jesus Christ had entered into human history. He had come to save. It was
just the beginning…
So Christmas this year is just a beginning anew of God’s
continued grace in your life. What has God changed in your life? What are God's promises in his word to you? You can put away all these Christmas things even as Mary did. Her
life moved on to the greater events and greater sufferings. The most important
event of Jesus’ life lay ahead for Mary, for the others around him, and for the
world. Christmas is just the beginning. It didn’t end there. Just as a birth of
baby is a beginning of new life, spiritual
rebirth is just a beginning too. Are you living it out by faith in Jesus?
