Christmas: Man’s Journey to God or God’s Journey to Man?

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph.

It didn’t appear that Mary had any intentions of becoming the mother of Jesus. It would seems she was just beginning her life as a young woman.

But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit (the spirit that makes one something other than ordinary).

Before Mary’s story began, it was clear that what made the difference in her life was the presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that causes our lives to become something that they ordinarily would not have; for Mary it was becoming the mother of Jesus.

Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man (not to be confused with a bad man in his day) and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement (referred to as divorce) quietly.

As he considered this (he, Joseph was making his plans), an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” (“son of David” meant let me remind you of where you come from).

The angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit (the Spirit that defies what’s normal). And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Noticed while reading this passage that it didn’t say give you access to Heaven, but rather save, deliver, rescue people from the sins they have. Often normal people compare their sins to the person next to them, but Jesus isn’t saving us from our neighbors sins or our families’ sin, but from our own. It’s easy to point out the sins of others, but it’s our own that Jesus is concerned with.

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ (God with you; God with me; God with ordinary people making them something more than ordinary, like Mary.)”

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25 NLT)

You may not fully understand the story and true meaning of all Christmas is about, but know this one thing; it’s not about us coming to Him in as much as it is He has come to us. Christmas is the actual map which outlines God’s journey to us, not our journey to get to Him. What would happen if we live our lives with this perspective? God is trying to get to me and if I allow Him, my life will become something special, something wonderful, something more than what it is under normal circumstances.

Christmas is the story of God’s journey to us, not our journey to Him.