Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said
through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and they will call him
Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” -
Matt. 1:22-23

My wife and I have only seriously lost track of our
daughter once. We were walking through a crowded
tourist town and the streets were lined with shops.
It was evening and the crowds were dense. Suddenly,
I noticed that neither my wife nor I had our
eight-year-old daughter by the hand. We spun around,
unable to spot her. With candy stores beckoning
children indoors, and winding side streets all around,
she could be anywhere.

A few minutes of running around, and somehow I
spotted her, a far way down a side street. The look on
her face was unforgettable: “Where were you?” she
asked, but her eyes said, Thank God, you are with me
now. I am never going to leave your side again.

“With us.” There is hardly a more central promise that
God has ever made to human beings. The alternative is
just too horrifying to imagine. If God has abandoned us,
and that is why so many bad things happen in life, then
what does that say about God? What does it say about
our destiny? If God oscillates in and out of our lives,
willing to be with us only as long as we don’t get too
obnoxious, coming and going like a father who grows lax
in his responsibility—where does that leave us? If God
cannot be with us, then we would have to conclude that
we will never reap the benefits of divine presence, and that
words like grace, mercy, love, and truth have no meaning.

Jesus was born, but he was also sent, and Immanuel was
one of his names. Immanu-el: “with us [is] God.” “God with
us.” His body among us, his message from the heavens.
He turned life upside down with the divine truths he
presented. But he also left people with the sense that they
had never been closer to God than when they were with him.

We don’t need to stay lost. God is not indifferent to our
condition. And he came to us in the most radical way, by
taking our flesh, our humanity, on himself.

Prayer for Today:

Dear Lord, I need to know you are with us. Help me, this
Christmas, to know, more than I have ever known before,
that you have come and that we can always live in the
conscious enjoyment of your presence.

(Biblegateway.com, Mel Lawrenz)

By Rev. Wayne Palmer

Read Luke 1:26-29

TEXT: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin."
(Luke 1:26-27)

Frustration is sitting on the floor with six or seven
strings of Christmas lights all tangled together.
After a short struggle we usually gave up and
handed them back to dad, giving him a more tightly
tangled mess of lights than they were before. That's
when his patience and five years in the Navy came
in handy; in no time he had them untangled and
ready for the tree.

As Mary shares her memories of the first Christmas,
she leaves Zechariah for the moment and jumps
forward six months. The same angel Gabriel was
sent on another mission. She recalls the angel's
kind greeting and how he told her God had chosen
her, and was with her. But she was confused,
perplexed and greatly troubled. A debate began
raging back and forth in her mind, as she considered
what the greeting meant.

There is so much confusion in life. Just like Mary we
try to pick through the pieces and see if we can make
any sense out of them. Our minds go back and forth
from one point of view to another, from faith to doubt,
from confidence to uncertainty, from comfort to fear.

Thankfully, nothing is a mystery for God. He arranges
everything according to His loving plan. He assures us,
"I know the plans I have for you ... plans for welfare and
not for evil, to give you a future and a hope"
(see Jeremiah 29:11). The most important part of that
plan was starting to fall into place right now. God's own
Son is becoming human, so He can live a perfect life
and suffer on the cross in our place to win eternal life for
all of us.


Prayer: Heavenly Father, life can be very confusing. In
such times remind me to cast my cares into Your hands
so I may live in peace and quietness. In Jesus' name, Amen.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)

By Rev. Wayne Palmer

Read Luke 1:1-4
TEXTIt seemed good to me...to write an orderly account for you...that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught." (Mark 11:1-2)

Are you dreaming of a white Christmas this year? I always did. I'd hope and pray, but most years I'd look out the window and only see the same old, brown grass and bare trees. Sometimes we feel that same disappointment in our Christmases. We get our hopes up; we make all our preparations, but then we feel disappointed when the day rolls around.

Maybe our problem is building our Christmas excitement on uncertain things-a white Christmas, the perfect presents, everyone getting along at Christmas time. Luke had something different in mind when he wrote about the first Christmas.

Luke wasn't your typical writer in the Bible though. Unlike Matthew he wasn't one of Jesus' 12 disciples; he never met Jesus face to face. He wasn't even Jewish; he was a Gentile physician from Antioch in Syria. He got his information by interviewing people who saw and heard Jesus, people who lived with Him, ate and drank with Him. Being an educated man, Luke didn't get swept away by the ramblings of dreamy-eyed followers of Jesus. He made sure to ask for historical details and evidence from his witnesses.

When it came to researching Jesus' birth, what better source could he have than to interview Mary His mother? Sitting at her feet Luke gathers so much important information it ends up taking two of the 24 chapters of his book.

Pull up a seat with Luke as Mary shares her memories of the first Christmas.

Prayer: Almighty God, I want to learn more about the first Christmas. Thank You for leaving us a record in the words of Jesus' own mother Mary. Help me learn why Jesus was born and why that matters for my life now. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)