Mary did you know your baby boy was God?
JOURNEY TO THE MANGER – DAY TWO
It’s day two of Joseph and Mary’s journey. After a long and difficult day, they may have only made 9 or 10 miles this second day. I’m sure they both were dealing with all kinds of doubts and questions, but they knew God had a plan for them and God was using them but did they really know what was about to happen?
Mary, Did You Know Your Baby Boy was God?
Did Mary know that her baby boy would one day walk on water, heal the sick, die on the cross for the sin of the world, did she know the son she delivered would soon deliver her, did she know when she kissed her little baby she was kissing the face of God? Did they know they were bringing God into the world?
Immanuel God with Us
Isaiah prophesied this very moment was going to happen hundreds of years before. “The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
Jesus is Christmas
Immanuel means, “God with us”! This name takes the story of the birth of the Christmas baby out of the realm of the ordinary and transforms the birth of Jesus into God’s Christmas miracle! The true meaning of that first Christmas is wrapped in the name Immanuel: God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Now we never have to be alone because He is with us. It is the most incredible truth of the Christmas story to me – God with us. JESUS IS CHRISTMAS! The first and best Christmas present ever.
Christmas Marks the Day Jesus Came to Earth
Jesus didn’t come into this world so our Decembers would be filled with Christmas carols, decorated trees, and all the trimmings, He came to transform our lives! While we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, it was not the beginning for Jesus. Christmas Day marks his arrival in human form to dwell on the earth. Jesus is God and has always been with the Father from before the beginning. He could have revealed himself to the world in any way He chose but He decided to become a baby, born to a peasant couple in a stable.
Do You Know Him?
Jesus is not a “character” in the Christmas story; He authored the Christmas story to reveal his character. As you celebrate Christmas this year consider the way God chose to reveal himself to the world. Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). We don’t just celebrate the birth of Christ; we celebrate the fact that God stepped into the world with humility and made himself “knowable.” It is interesting to wonder if Mary really knew who Jesus was, but the more important question is; Do you know Him?
Matthew 1:23
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”