October 20, 2024
My heart was heavy as I opened my Bible this morning, I’m not ready for the Christmas story to be over. I’ve read it or a portion of it every day since December first. Moving on feels like taking down the Christmas tree-another sad day.
It’s been a delicious journey.
I’ve been in the tabernacle when Zechariah was visited by Gabriel and still get tickled when Gabriel shut him up for nine months.
I have pictured the sign language (or perhaps written) conversation between Zechariah and Elizabeth about what happened by the altar, besides the burning of incense. I have tried to imagine the emotions Elizabeth felt upon the news. She stayed in seclusion for months. Was it because she felt awkward, or was she relishing every minute by herself? Was she reliving all the months she had longed for this? (If my calculations are even close, it could have been at least 30 years of yearning, equaling at LEAST 360 months.) Have you ever waited that long for a dream to come true?
My imagination has tried to capture Gabriel’s next visit with Mary. I still don’t know where she was when she received this unexpected heavenly guest or how she explained it to her mother and father. I don’t know whether she rushed to Joseph or Elizabeth first, or if she stayed for the birth of John. Though these details are left for me to guess, I do know that she immediately and completely surrendered to God’s plan. I want to be like that.
Oh, how I love Joseph! He was such a good man, clearly the RIGHT man to be Jesus’ earthly father. I love how he followed the Lord’s speaking right away. He didn’t analyze or try to re-route. Each time he moved IMMEDIATELY. I want to be like that.
As I went to bed on Christmas Eve, I pictured Mary and Joseph in the stable. Delivering a baby in a BARN. Children. I can only imagine. No wonder SHE was the one chosen. (I don’t know about you, but I purposely went to a professional to deliver each of my children. My beloved was there but I surely didn’t want him to be IN CHARGE.) In many ways, Mary and Joseph were still strangers to each other. Giving birth by yourselves? In the hay? And when they had just gotten everything together, they had surprise guests. Unexpected visitors can fluster the most put together hostess, but in the aftermath of labor? Wow. Talk about being adaptable and easygoing. I want to be like that.
Oh, those shepherds! They didn’t clean themselves up to go to Jesus. They hurried their dirty selves right to Him. And when they found Him, they couldn’t keep it in. Luke 2:17 reports: When they had seen Him, they spread the word. I want to be like that.
I picture Mary again in Luke 2:19: “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She didn’t have a cell phone. She couldn’t post her status: “In the barn-no filter”. She didn’t have her mom to talk to or a sister or a friend. Surrounded by guys, hay, and animals, she “treasured” and “pondered.” Sometimes when God works in crazy amazing ways, there are no words. He moves and moves US. I want to be like that.
These have been my people this December. I don’t want to let them go back to where they came from. And then I remember Simeon and Anna. I haven’t unpacked the trip to the temple!
The story of Christmas is only the beginning.
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Dawn Reed is a pastor's wife and newspaper columnist. Reach her at preacherwife7@yahoo.com.
