Reading 12

Luke 1-4

Ahhh, Christmas time. That’s what I thought as I read Luke 1 and 2…the passages that are so often read around the holidays.

While it’s fun to nestle into the warmth of a baby who brought hope, have you considered how impossible and unlikely it all was?

Elizabeth was old and she had been unable to have a baby when she was young. Mary was a virgin. They both became pregnant.

John the Baptist’s dad, Zechariah, was considered “righteous in God’s eyes.” However, he didn’t believe Gabriel’s message that he and Elizabeth would have a baby. Here was someone who had loved and served God for many years but found this too impossible to believe.

In contrast to Zechariah, the very young girl, Mary, did believe Gabriel. How likely is it that that the one who had walked with God so long was shown up by a teenager?

Shepherds were held in low esteem in that time and society. Why didn’t God announce Jesus’ arrival to the political and religious leaders? Or at least to some respected, wealthy citizens?

But we know that God was at work because it was all so unlike how we would do it.

In Luke 1:37, Gabriel says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” God does what he will.

We often do not understand and our patience wears thin, but if we watch and wait, we see amazing things…like God became human…in the form of a baby…and rocked our world!

Sue

Reading #12 (audio)