The story of Christmas found in the gospel is unexpected. For the people of God, God had been silent for 400 years. Many of them felt forgotten and yet, in the quiet, dark countryside, God remembered and came to them. But not how they expected. He came in the form of a baby, not to the king or powerful leaders, but to the lowly, the poor, the young and the old. The 2 gospels capture each person’s response when they encountered the angel or Jesus and those emotions capture our emotions at Christmas. In the same way, we will look at the Christmas story and see the many emotions we feel at Christmas and see that God is with us in all those places. How God shows up to unexpected people in unexpected ways. Christmas is often remembered by a miraculous birth, yet before the “silent night” when baby Jesus was born to a virgin outside an inn and laid in a manger there was another birth as unlikely as it was necessary. Before the arrival of the Savior King, God tells the OT prophet Malachi He will send a messenger who will preach to the people and prepare the way for the Kings arrival. In Luke 1we begin to see this prophecy fulfilled. It is here we meet an aged, faithful, childless couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth.