(This is the 2nd of a 4 part series
on “Memories of Christmas”.)
Luke 2:1-7
Christmas
traditions are generally carried over from generation to generation; but some
just happen.
About
ten years ago we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Afterwards,
we thought it would be fun to drive around and look at some lights. Eventually
we started getting hungry.
Have
you ever tried to find a restaurant open on Christmas Eve, e.g. The
Christmas Story? The only one we found was Lee Garden – a Chinese
restaurant. The food was great. However, Chinese karaoke on Christmas Eve was a
little strange. But that night a new Christmas tradition was born for our
family.
There
are a multitude of Christmas traditions that families observe. Some are
fantasy, like Santa Claus. While others are based in fact, like the Nativity
scene. Even then, the Nativity scene of today is a stark contrast to the
reality.
It must have been a crazy time in the young lives
of Mary and Joseph. An angel had visited Mary and told her that she would
become pregnant through the Holy Spirit. If that wasn’t hard enough to believe,
he also informed her that her son would reign over Jacob’s descendants (Israel)
forever; that his kingdom would never end.
How could she explain this to Joseph since she was
a virgin; to her parents who had raised her to be a righteous Jew; to people in
the village who might even choose to stone her for her apparent sin? But her
relative Elizabeth understood.
When Mary went to visit her, Elizabeth’s baby
leapt in her womb.
if you click on this link, you can listen to a beautiful song about God's love seen through the gift of his only son. It is called “How
Many Kings”.
And now, when she was almost due, she and Joseph
had to make a three day trip to Bethlehem for a census. Of course, when they
arrived the city was bursting at the seams. As a result, there was no room in
the inn, so Mary gave birth to the baby in a stable where he was laid in a
feeding trough.
My
family will never forget about that first visit to the Lee Garden Restaurant
and how our Christmas tradition was born. In the same way, we will never forget
that our celebration of Christmas was born in Bethlehem with the gift of God’s only
son as an expression of His pure, unconditional love for us.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only
Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This
is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a
sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 NLT
(If
God has spoken to you through this blog, please feel free to share the link
with others on social media.)
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