A New Year

I so totally failed at keeping my advent blog.  I am saddened, because I wonder if it reflects the importance I put on communing with God.  I am so bad at keeping in touch with people, calling friends, family, reading and answering my e-mails.  But I would have hoped to dedicate time to God, especially around the Christmas Season.
I have an app on my phone which gives me a reading every day and I do try to do that in the vague hope it will nourish me spiritually.  Oh silly me.  It is like me waving at my husband in the morning and never talking to him.  No way to run a relationship. 
Our church is doing the Bible in a Year this year and I am planning to keep up with it - not planning on blogging it though!  Hopefully it won't go the way of all my resolutions. If you want to follow the readings - this is it
Watch this space - hopefully I won't be reporting yet another fail!

Day 18

A week has shot by and I haven't been here.  There is a reason they call this the silly season.  Not only all the school plays, parties, man-flu, poorly cats, office lunches/dinners, but also the present buying and wrapping, shopping etc.  STOP!!!! This should just not be what December is about.  This frantic pressure to get things perfect for Christmas day.  They already have been made perfect by the birth of Jesus. 
He was born in a stable, amongst animals.  Yes, it was crazy busy outside, people rushing to get their census completed, find accommodation, get meals, find lost family etc, but in that barn there must have been a haven of peace.
We work so hard to achieve the peace of Christmas and to have a lovely "relaxing" day.  We all wish each other peace and good will as we wrestle our way through the shops, shoving and cursing the crowds, hooting at other drivers with impatience and dreading all the driving to see friends and family.
I want to try and slow down, breathe the winter air and relish the peace this year.  Hopefully the rest of this week will make time for reflection  and enjoyment in preparation of celebrating Christ's birth.

Dec. 11

Luke 1: 39-45

Mary Visits Elizabeth

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”

Today at church I bumped into a friend I haven't seen for ages.  She was very pregnant, due today in fact.  I wept with joy when I saw this as I have been praying for this couple to have a baby for years.  They have been through the pain of fertility treatment, acceptance that they wouldn't have a baby and were well on the road to adopting a baby from Africa when she fell pregnant. While this isn't quite the same thing as this story, the joy was there.  A real gift from God, an answer to prayer. God has fulfilled his promise to them.
When Mary found out she was pregnant she went to visit Elizabeth. She seems to have run there without telling even Joseph she was leaving.  In those days, being pregnant out of marriage was dealt with by stoning. There was a strong possibility that Joseph would be stoned too. Maybe Mary fled to protect them both from shame and possible death, while she sorted her head out.

It could also be that Elizabeth needed her. Not only was she an elderly first time mum, but her husband was mute, possibly deaf, and Elizabeth would have welcomed all the help she could get.

While Elizabeth was older and therefore should be the superior of the two women, Elizabeth reverses this and showers greetings on Mary. The baby has leaped in her womb, he is filled with the Spirit before he is even born.

Elizabeth is also filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit helps her recognise that the baby in Mary's womb is her Lord and Elizabeth states her submission to Him and the unborn Jesus is raised to a position of honour above all .

Dec 10

Matthew 1: 22-26

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. 

Naming a child is a tricky business - this is something they have to live with for the rest of their days. Here the angel is telling Joseph that not only does he have to be a father to a child that he had no involvement in, but also that he should call him Immanuel. God with us.  Calling him after his dad....
I have endless admiration for Joseph.  To me he is the unsung.  He is so obedient to God. He accepts his role in the life of Jesus and obeys all the commands he is given.

Dec 9

Mathew 1:18-21

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 

Michael Card  wrote "Joseph's song" - it makes me cry every time I hear it - I love the sentiment and feeling behind it.  What a wonderful man Joseph must have been.  I imagine him as a big bear of a man who is gentle and loving. I hear this in my head whenever I read these verses or think about how Joseph must have felt.  He is a neglected part of Christ's story, but he played a major part of Jesus' childhood, as his father.
Listen to the song and see if you are moved too. This is my favourite Christmas song.
Joseph's song

How could it be this baby in my arms
Sleeping now, so peacefully
The Son of God, the angel said
How could it be
Lord I know He's not my own
Not of my flesh, not of my bone
Still Father let this baby be
The son of my love

Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours
How can a man be father to the Son of God
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king, How can I raise a king
He looks so small, His face and hands so fair
And when He cries the sun just seems to disappear
But when He laughs it shines again
How could it be

Dec 8

Luke 1: 26-38

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”                     

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

  “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. 

This is where the nativity scene starts for many - the angel appearing to Mary.  Immediately I have a picture of all the nativity plays I have ever been to, with a little (usually) blonde Mary with her mothers best blue pillow case tied around her head.

This encounter with an angel is so different from yesterday's with Zachariah.  Although Mary is surprised and troubled, she isn't terrified.  She knows she hasn't done anything wrong but all the same she is alarmed at the encounter and probably a bit surprised that a strange man is talking to her. Not the done thing.
Her reaction is the same as Zachariah, but she doesn't get struck dumb but the angel.  I suppose this isn't an answer to prayer as it was with Elizabeth. She isn't challenging God's power.  She is just querying the logistics.  She is a virgin.  At least Elizabeth and Zachariah were sharing the marital bed.  She may be innocent, but I'm sure she knew that you didn't just fall pregnant at a random moment.
Gabriel explains it to her and then she accepts it.  Without hesitation, without whining about her reputation, without argument.  She graciously accepts her future.  How would I have done?  I guess Gabriel and I would still be arguing about it now!  Although he would have taken away my power of speech in desperation!  I am challenged by Mary's acceptance and obedience.  This was a big, BIG thing she was taking on, and she did it in humility.  I pray that I might accept God's future for me with such grace.

Dec 7

Luke 1: 18-25

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.” 

Having been terrified that he was about to be killed just a moment ago, Zachariah is now challenging the message the angel has brought him.  You can almost imagine the angel gaping at him in open mouthed surprise.  
I know that I have prayed for something to happen and when it has, I have been a bit taken aback.  Are you sure God?  This? But the answer has never been delivered to me via angel mail.  I hope I would be a little less challenging in that situation!
I think that Zachariah wasn't doubting that God had the power to give them a baby, but just didn't believe it could happen.  He feels he is too old.  I do laugh that he doesn't say Elizabeth is old, but just "getting along in years".  Tact and diplomacy, that man!
Because Zachariah doubted God and showed a lack of faith, he was punished.  He wasn't allowed to speak until the baby was born.
The people in the temple must have all been wondering what was going on - they might have thought that Zachariah had met his end in the temple, but then he came out. They recognised that something big had happened when he was unable to speak. And he managed to convey what had happened in the temple. I find it interesting that he still had to finish his "turn" as priest in the temple before going home.
Elizabeth conceived and then went into seclusion for 5 months. I wonder why - I would have thought she would be out there showing off her baby bump and happy to be able to put the gossipers in their places.  Maybe she had a really bad first trimester.
What I learn from this part of the nativity scene - never underestimate God's power and believe that He will answer your prayers.