Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Spoke to a lovely lady yesterday about Christ on my prayer walk. She said she is an ex-anglican, ex-catholic now Budhist among other things.
I asked her how she got to that view.
She said it was just too hard for her to believe in a virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus.
I asked her why she could not believe that.
She said she is very pragmatic and it was too much of a fable like story with no hard evidence.
She said you probably won't like my view on Jesus but I think he was just a good man and prophet.
I said you can't offend me, I have heard many views on Jesus but I do find it difficult to understand why people would find it difficult to believe that God could cause Mary to be pregnant.
I said if you look at all of creation around us, you see a beautiful sunrise in the morning, it becomes very easy for me to believe that the God that created all of this and all of humanity can cause a young woman to be pregnant in Bethlehem.
Many people have forgotten or don't realise why God caused Mary to be pregnant as a virgin. Jesus Christ was fully divine and fully human in order that His sacrifice and death on the cross would be sufficient for our sins so that we could all receive forgiveness. People have missed the message in amongst the religious views and confusion that all we need to do is receive what He did on the cross, receive His grace freely.
We continued to talk about Jesus and who He is and who He was while on earth.
We talked about how she didn't believe in miracles. We talked about extremists. We talked about Church. We talked about family. We talked about community.
By the end she started saying things like I guess life itself, and the kids and grandkids that I have are a miracle and we should be thankful and grateful for that.
That was the end of the conversation. But we did share a great moment talking about Jesus.
It did get me thinking about the virgin birth.
If Mary or Joseph had anything to do with the pregnancy humanity could take credit for the supernatural entry of Christ into the earth.
As Isaiah prophesied the virgin birth was a sign.
A sign that from the start this was all about grace. Not about human effort.
Although Mary carried Jesus inside her, it was the spirit of God inside her that formed Jesus.
It was God coming to us.
It was God wanting to be with us.
It was God giving us Himself.
The great Creator of all things put Himself inside His creation.
The Lord Himself gave us the sign...
Oh! the humility Oh! the wonder
God with us.
When all of us did not deserve any of Him He gave all of Himself to all of us.
The verse before Isaiah 7:14 the prophet says is it not enough to try the patience of man. Will you also try the patience of my God also?
This Christmas I pray we would not try His patience but embrace His free gift of grace.
Unto us a child is born.
Unto us a King is given.
What a gift!
What a King!
What a God!
Let us receive Him freely, for He has freely given Himself.
Bring Glory to Him by enjoying Him this Christmas.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
+jk
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