God with us. Emmanuel. Have you ever deeply pondered the savior’s birth? What a strange way God chose to save the world.
By the grace of God, my husband and I have five children. Each of our five kids has a unique birth story. Some of them were born in foreign countries. Some came more quickly than we anticipated. One of them almost arrived at home! Some gave us a scare. But each birth story is unique. I think maybe Jesus has the most amazing birth story of all time. His conception and birth were a miracle from heaven, the work of an Almighty God! He did not come to live amongst us by human means. It was a divine act.
Incredible Faith
From a human perspective, His birth looked scandalous. Can you imagine if Mary and Joseph had social media back in the day? They announce their engagement, and everyone is excited for them. Lots of hearts, likes, and positive comments. Then out of nowhere, Mary is pregnant. At that point, she may have gone radio silent, no more posts, no more pictures. I can imagine how Joseph felt; betrayed and devastated, canceling the wedding in his head. The woman he was to spend the rest of his life with had just broken her promises to him and now was going to have a child out of wedlock, that certainly wasn’t his! In the culture back then, that was incredibly shameful.
But God.
God had revealed himself to Mary, and then He revealed himself to Joseph. The prophecy that they had known since childhood was coming true before their eyes. Mary WAS the virgin Isaiah had prophesied about hundreds of years earlier, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (NIV).
The faith of this young engaged couple amazes me. They trusted God more than what their eyes could see, and more than their minds could conceive. They believe His words to them were true that the prophecy was being fulfilled in their lives! Joseph believed Mary’s pregnancy was a miracle, that the child she would bear was conceived by the Holy Spirit. What incredible faith!
Divine Deliverer
The name Jesus, Yeshua, in Hebrew means “to deliver, to rescue.” His divine entrance into the world was only a precursor to His divine intention to come and save people from their sins. Through His pure and perfect life, He became the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect lamb, to rescue us from the curse of death and sin.
God truly works in miraculous ways, often beyond what our minds can conceive. May we have the eyes of faith like Mary and Joseph to trust what He says is true, to cling to Him through the storms of life, when everything feels uncertain and confusion abounds. May we believe His promises to us and walk so closely with Him that we know His stil,l small voice, the voice of truth even in the storms.
Jesus, thank you for coming to us to save us from our sins, for becoming Emmanuel, God with us. Thank you for living a sinless life and dying on the cross to pay the price for our sin. You truly are Yeshua, the one who delivers us from evil and rescues us from eternal death and destruction. Amen.
