It is hard to believe that Christmas is so close already and with it the dawning of a new year. I just got used to writing 2023.
I find it fascinating how God revealed this the greatest story ever told to the world via a series of little incidents. Little things, little people, and little places sequence and layer Christs coming into the world.
It is impressive, when reading Lukes account, to realize, nothing there speaks of any bigness. Many important men were in Palestine at that time including scholars and others of high intelligence, yet the angels didnt appear to them. Their ears did not hear Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men. The greatest news the world had ever heard, was heard by simple shepherds.
No elite woman of high standing was chosen to carry the babe in her womb. No, it was simple Mary, a poor girl of Nazareth. No great man that society held in high esteem was chosen to head the home in which the Christ child would be reared. That was left to a humble carpenter.
Its always this way in the Bible. I Corinthians 1:27 says But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
One of the greatest themes in the Bible is how God uses little people to do big tasks. It was an unknown shepherd boy who killed Goliath. It was a man who was least in his family, a nobody who defeated the Midianites using only 300 men. It was a fugitive shepherd from the backside of the desert who led the Israelites out of bondage toward the Promised Land. It was a little lunch from a little boy that Jesus used to feed 5000. God uses little people to do big things. This encourages me, because I am a little people.
So it was in the Christmas story: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, It doesnt read like a hall of fame. God used the common people. Friend, God wants to use you.
You may say, But Im a nobody! Well, God uses nobodies; it is all over the Christmas story.
As we celebrate this season, let us remember what it is all about. Jesus Christ was born to die. Why? Because he had to if anyone would be able to spend eternity with God in heaven.
There is nothing we can do about our sinful condition. So he came born of a virgin, (therefore He had no sin nature according to Romans 5:12) living a sinless life, and dying as that perfect sacrifice for our sins. What a gift! Romans 6:23 says For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I hope you have received that gift.
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