I just finished watching the “The Nativity” put on by the BBC this year, and I have to admit, I’m a little shaken up. I started watching it a few nights ago (it’s 4 episodes long), and to be brutally honest, I really hated it. It drove me crazy that Mary’s parents practically offered Joseph a cup of tea and a biscuit upon inviting him in to talk about his and Mary’s betrothal. I thought, oh come on, what a joke! This isn’t even close to what it must have been like! I had a hard time with everyone being very white and British. A blue eyed Joseph with an American playing the angel, Gabriel. But somewhere God must have softened my heart a little because I began to get lost in the story. I began seeing the people in a completely different light. This young girl, barely a woman, is told that she will give birth to the Son of God after the Holy Spirit comes upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadows her. Not only that, but she’s a virgin! So, what does she do? She accepts it. She trusts God. Mary, you’re so brave!
And then Joseph, you know the girl that you recently became betrothed to, and who is to stay a virgin until your wedding? Well, she’s pregnant. Oh, don’t worry though, it was by the Holy Spirit. She’s still a virgin. And what did he do when he was told this in a dream? He believes it. He trusts God. Wow, Joseph.
OK, I know what you’re thinking...”Sydni, haven’t you heard this story before?”
I have, but I think that’s the problem. I’ve heard it, and read it so many times. I even appeared to the shepherds myself as an angel 6 years in a row in our church nativity play. I’ve encountered this story so many times that I’ve forgotten to really pay attention to its truth that directly effects me. Be shaken up with me. It directly effects you too, by the way.
I pray that if I ever have a dream or if God speaks to me through an angel, I will believe and not only just believe, but I won’t be afraid to live it out. God changed the whole world when a couple of people said, “Let it be as you’ve said, Lord.”
And then, we get to the part of the story that had me in tears. Jesus’ birth. When Jesus was born, he was wrapped up in stuff from the rag-bag, and then he was put to sleep in a mass of hay in an animal food trough. If you’ve ever been on a hay-ride and just sat on the stuff for a few minutes, you know that wouldn’t be where you’d want to lay a new born. He wasn’t born in a castle, a temple/church, or even a cozy cottage. This is really significant! He wasn’t born surrounded by rich folk or people of authority. Nope, our God, our Saviour was born in a cow shed where shepherds and non-jewish, eastern scholars were his first visitors.
Are you able to begin really thinking about the childhood story you heard over and over growing up? Thinking of it not as a mere story, but as the origin of your very own abundant life if you know Him?
In Luke 2:19, after spending 9 months as an outcast and a “whore,” after probably being shunned by everyone she knew, after traveling miles from her home and away from all comfort and belonging, after laying in the hay and giving birth to Jesus, after foreign wise-men and dirty shepherds were the first to greet and worship her newborn child, the one she knew to be the Son of God, it says,
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
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