Love God for the Gift of Jesus

December 23, 2018 Background Scripture: Luke 1:26 – 31; 2:21 – 35 Lesson Passage: Luke 1:26 – 31; 2:22, 25 – 35 This is the time of year when the thoughts of Christians all over the world should be upon the birth of the Christ child. However, with the commercialization of the holiday, we can barely squeeze in a little time to recognize that the focus of the holiday used to be the birth of Jesus. The consumer industry has extended the time from one day to a roughly three-month lead-in that has become known as the “Holiday Season”. The “Holiday Season” has almost supplanted autumn as the official fall season of the year. The biblical account of Jesus’ birth gives details that are remainders of God’s love for mankind. God used two poor Jews living in the rather obscure village of Nazareth in the province of Galilee as the backdrop. Galilee was separated from Judea, which contained Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem, by the area known as Samaria. Samaria was considered off-limits by devout Jews. Therefore, the separation between Galilee and Judea seemed much greater. God dispatched the angel, Gabriel, to Nazareth to announce His plans to a virgin under contract to marry a man who was a descendant of King David. The virgin’s name was Mary and the man she was espoused to marry was named Joseph. Before the wedding could take place, Gabriel announced to Mary that she would conceive a child as a virgin and after she delivered the baby, she was to name him Jesus. Gabriel told Mary that she was highly favored by God as evidenced by the fact that He had selected her for such an honor. The financial status of Joseph and Mary becomes evident at the time of the baby’s dedication. Mary brought two turtledoves because they were too poor to bring a lamb and a turtledove for the dedicatory offering as prescribed in the Law. It is commendable that in spite of their poverty, Joseph and Mary were still obedient to the Law in bringing an offering and dedicating the baby to God. It is in the temple setting that Mary learned more about the future of the baby that she was there to dedicate. An aged and devout man named Simeon was led by the Spirit into an encounter with Joseph, Mary, and the baby. Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms and gave thanks to God for allowing him to see the baby with his own eyes before his death. Simeon declared that the baby was destined to be both a glory to the Jews and a light of understanding to the Gentiles. Simeon then blessed Joseph and Mary. He went on to prophesy to Mary what the child’s destiny would be and how his destiny would affect her. Gabriel and Simeon both announced what God was going to do through the Christ child after he came of age. Indeed, the Christ child was a precious gift from God to a world that was destined to eternal destruction. There is so much that we may never understand about the ways of God. However, we can always trust that whatever God does, whether we understand it or not, is always intended for our good. Therefore, we can love God for His goodness towards us; but most of all, we can love God for His gift of Jesus. Robert C. Hudson November 12, 2018