A PEOPLE & PLACE PREPARED

The Christmas Story is about God coming to earth, the earth that he created, to dwell among people, people that he created.  He didn’t come here as one would think the Almighty God of all Creation would come, in splendor and majesty.  He came as an infant born in a stable, to people of no reputation.  He came to people who were in one way or another expecting him; Mary, waiting for the coming Messiah spoken about by the holy books, shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks but believed the words the angels said, wise men from the east who had been watching the star they knew to be a sign, Simeon, a righteous and devout man waiting for the consolation of Israel, and Anna, who spent years in the temple fasting and praying for the One who would come and redeem Jerusalem.

The advance promotion of this significant event was written hundreds of years before, in the ancient dusty books of law and prophecy.  The sign was a star in the sky, one of thousands that was easily missed, except by those with eyes to see.  The great angelic announcement was made to lowly shepherds to lowly shepherds out in a field far from town.

An insignificant event in the eyes of the world occurred that night; but to those righteous, devout, and waiting people the event of eternity had been revealed, an event that changed the world and the people in it forever.

This first coming of Jesus was to make a people prepared to dwell with God.  His second coming will be to gather those people and take them to a place he has prepared for them to dwell with God.  The ultimate end of all that has come before is that “where I am you may also be” (John 14:1-3).  From the beginning of time to the end of time it has been ALL about a loving God wanting to dwell with the people he created and breathed the breath of life into.

All that I can do is be like Mary and humbly receive this most treasured gift.