Blessed Sunday to you all! I hope your time in worship today was anointed. Today Pastor Joel preached a wonderful sermon. The Praise Team sang a beautiful Chinese Carol titled “Who Would Send a Baby?” And we spent the evening decorating the Christmas tree. We located the ornaments and as they were being hung we each talked about our favorites. We remembered who gave them to us or where and the circumstances in which they came into our possession. There are all of the ornaments the kids made growing up in school that have their names and dates on the back. Great memories and the new ornaments of Elvis, a snowman that Travis received from Carter Blood Care for successfully donating his first pint of blood and a coffee cup ornament were added to the collection. Our tree never has a theme or looks very organized. We were married on New Year’s Day 1981. There was a bridal luncheon given for me and the gift was a Christmas ornament from each guest. That is how our collection got started. We have ornaments from Harry Potter and Hagrid to Elvis to angels and snowmen. Tomorrow we will get down the stockings and the tree skirt and the tree will be complete except for presents under the tree and they will appear soon. The crèche is on the mantle and we are getting closer to being ready for Christmas.

Luke 1:27 says, ‘For nothing will be impossible with God.” As we get closer to Christmas my thoughts often find their way to Mary. Ladies, can you imagine being Mary. First, she is really young and engaged to a man older than her. Then she is met by an angel who tells her she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and she will bear the Son of God. And then she has to tell her family this completely remarkable story.

In those times town’s people would ostracize or even kill those women who had babies out of wedlock. But Mary, after she collected herself and “got her bearings,” proclaims the greatness of God and surrenders to His will. The angel tells her to believe that nothing is impossible with God. Another angel tells a group of shepherds to “fear not” they were bringing good tidings of a great joy that a baby had been born in a stable in Bethlehem.

Mary did not conceive Jesus by the ordinary way, but in an extraordinary way. But Jesus was born in a stable, not a hospital, or a hotel room or even at home with her mother to help. It was just she and Joseph and God in that stable to bring that precious life into the world. I am reminded of a story about a young couple who were expecting their first child. It happened to be a pastor and his wife. He was determined not to be in the delivery room when the time came. He lost that battle and as he watched his wife struggle after hours of labor to bring their child into the world it suddenly occurred to him that here was a woman who was laying down her life so that another might have life. Do you suppose he thought at that moment after the pain a bleeding had stopped that he thought about the words of the Eucharist that say, “this is my body given for you?”

And 2000 years ago a young couple in a far less attractive place delivered their first child. Joseph under ordinary circumstances would not have been with Mary at the point of delivery, she would have been attended by her mother and a mid-wife. But this was no ordinary birth; Joseph did attend his wife and helped to bring Jesus into the world. And as Joseph watched his very young wife struggle through labor pains and finally deliver this precious child, do you suppose he thought, here is one who is laying down her life that another might have life? Did he think of his wife, “This is my body given for you?”

The life of Jesus, Mary and Joseph would never be easy. Our lives are seldom easy, but when difficult situations arise God tells us in His Word that all things are possible with God. Claim the promise of God. As Pastor Joel told the children today during Children’s time, “If God broke His promises then He wouldn’t be God.” Have unwavering hope in God for all things are possible with God.

Take joy in the journey my dear friends. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.