Luke chapter 1 v 26-38:

Thursday December 17th:  Read Luke chapter 1 v 26-38:

We move into the NT, from promise to fulfillment, and how God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. Never let our familiarity with these things make us lose the Holy wonder of what happened here. Gabriel is sent to a young woman, emphasised to be a virgin, betrothed to Joseph – a descendant over many generations of David, but now in a humble and obscure condition. He greets Mary as one favoured by God, but understandably enough she is worried and afraid by this visit. Gabriel tells her not to fear – again, she is under God’s favour ( all by grace, not through any human deserving ) and she will give birth to a Son, whom she must call Jesus – a name used among the Jews to speaks of God Who saves ( the equivalent of the OT Joshua ) but uniquely personal to This Jesus, Who is Himself the Lord Who saves, of course. He speaks of the true greatness of this child, and how – though Mary’s son, He is also ” the Son of the Most High” – of God Himself, and will be the One Who is David’s true Son, whose final reign will be Eternal. What could Mary have made of this? Not much, we may well think, but her most pressing concern is, how can she who is a virgin bear a son? Gabriel tells her it will be by the power and the direct working of the Holy Spirit that this child will be conceived in her – He will indeed be the Son of God, with no human father. Mary now responds with faith and obedience. May we do so too, believing by God’s grace all the truth of the Christmas story, and the wonder of the birth of God’s Son to be our Saviour. Let us rejoice too in the equally sure promises here that reach beyond His first coming and the humility of His earthly life to His ultimate reign, for the babe of Bethlehem is indeed the Lord of glory!