Christmas; Just the Beginning

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?