December 9 Birth
“Proclaim the holy birth”
Pray
Mary’s child, I praise You, I give You may heart. Come, and settle within me by faith, that my spirit may rejoice. As Mary sang, so shall I: my soul shall magnify the Lord and my spirit shall rejoice in God, my Savior. Amen.
Read – Matthew 1:21
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
Reflect
While there is birth, there is hope. Even though the circumstances were less than perfect – a stable for a birthing room and a manger for a crib – the coming of Christ brought the bright light of hope into a dark world. Did Mary smile? Surely, she did. But did her eyes see beyond the swaddling clothes to the winding sheet? The truly amazing thing was that even if, at His birth, Mary believed that her son was destined for tears, she came to understand that His sacrifice would lead to her salvation. As Mark Lowry wrote, the child that she delivered would soon deliver her.
We must not think that the hope of Christmas was dashed upon the rock of Calvary. It was not. We cannot separate the hope that entered our world in Bethlehem from the events that culminated in the cross. God’s purposes were not defeated on Good Friday, death was. In fact, the promises of redemption were finally fulfilled on “the Friday when the sky turned black.”
The baby in Bethlehem was, indeed, born to die. But does it help if we say that He was born to live, and then to live again? In itself, Christ’s birth was simply the fulfillment of the Father’s promise. Yet, the deeper significance of that birth lies in its consequences. We have hope today, not just because Christ was born, but because He lived, and died, and rose again.
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