It’s easy to become so familiar with a passage like this that we lose the immensity of what is taking place. In this passage Luke records that the one who is beyond time is born into human history, that the creator of all thing’s has stepped into His creation. And what makes this even more startling is the setting. Jesus, God become flesh, enters time and space in anonymity and vulnerability. He’s born to a teenage mom and laid in a trough used to feed animals. The entrance into human history does not take place in the halls of power, in the places of prestige and privilege, instead God appears in the most humble and lowly way imaginable. And yet, a birth noted by no one of note at the time, becomes the moment by which all history will end up being divided. Christmas matters because Christ has come and that changes everything.

|| GIVE ||

The faith of Mary is an example for us. It’s marked by humility that demonstrates itself two ways: First, she is surprised that God would grant to her the honor and blessing to be the mother of the Messiah. Second, she is humble enough to take God at His word. It’s also marked by a willingness to trust God despite what it might cost her. Having a child out of wedlock was a surefire way to lose her reputation, the husband she is betrothed to and any future moving forward, but she not only believed the words of God, she also believed that God would provide for her. Finally, it’s a faith that is marked by hope. She believes her God will not only be her salvation, but that through the child she is bearing He will bring salvation to all His people. Mary provides for us not only an example of the type of faith God honors, but a picture of the people of faith our world desperately needs.

As Luke begins recounting the events leading up to Christ’s birth, he starts with a prediction of another birth—that of John the Baptist. John’s birth serves as a powerful reminder that God remains faithful to His promises, even when it seems like He’s gone silent. John’s birth marks the end of the 400-year period of silence in the salvation narrative. It reminds us that even when our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears and our faithfulness goes unnoticed, God is always true and working. He continues to work even when all hope seems lost, when our dreams are dashed, and even when our prayers have become little more than a faint hope. This story calls us to persevere in steady faithfulness, believing that God’s promises are reliable and that He often responds when we least expect it.

In the first few verses of his Gospel, Luke wants to make it clear that what he is about to tell us is not myth, fable, or fantasy, but history. The Christian faith is ultimately rooted in history. It’s important that we understand that Christianity isn’t merely a philosophy or a set of moral teachings. At its core, Christianity is about a real God working out a real plan to really save a people to Himself through the real birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who really was fully God and fully man. The reason this story is so good is because it’s also so true.