Back to Basics

Matthew 28:19-20 AMP

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.”

One of my favorite songs during this time of the year, is “Mary Did You Know?”, by Pentatonix.  I have included a link below.

Music has a way of bringing us nostalgia when it is played. There are songs I hear today from 30 plus years ago that I can sing along, remembering the words, yet, I cannot remember most phone numbers. For those three or four minutes, I am transposed to a time outside of this one.

“This child that you delivered will soon deliver you.”
I remember where I was when I first heard this song on the radio; I was driving with my toddler and baby to finish some last minute Christmas shopping, and as soon as I heard these words, it was as though I knew this song from within me. Knowing the Gospels, I imagine God was gracious to not let her know the details of the future of His time on earth, though I am sure she must have wondered. What would His life be like? What was to come? I wonder how much of the prophesies she knew?

“When you kiss your little baby, you kissed the face of God.”
This is so tender to me. She was chosen to be Jesus’ mother, to raise Jesus from baby on up. I can’t even imagine how Mary was impacted when she held His hand. It made me think of my boys as babies, there were many days and nights I just held them when they were sleeping and feeding, those were tender times.

“That sleeping child you’re holding is the Great ‘I AM’.”
These three verses of this song, though not consecutive, grips a kneel from the inside of me that takes my breath away. So humbling… God chose to come to us as a baby. She was in the presence of God when she looked at her Son.

How many times have we, children of the Most High God, noticed the presence of His Holy Spirit after…….? You fill in the blank. Those moments we realize “that was God”, and “only God could have accomplished that”. Isn’t it such a gift to know it’s Him in those moments or realize it when we look back?
I can’t even fathom how incredible these moments were for Mary, watching her Son. She was beholding God. Can we just pause there for a moment? Let that sink in…

In our own lives, do we allow His Holy Spirit to bathe us with stillness in love at His beautiful gift for us, Jesus? He wants to be with you forever, and so God Himself provided for us, Himself, as the sacrifice for our sins so we could be with Him. Oh how He desires us.

No matter where you’re at, whether you feel connected to God or not, God’s desire doesn’t change for you. Let’s ask the Lord for grace to experience that desire and to desire Him as well.

Jesus, help us to behold You this holiday season, in all we do. Give us a hunger and thirst for You.

Matt 1:21-23 NIV
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.”22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (prophesied in Isaiah 7:14)

John 3:15-16
so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life 16 “For God so loved and dearly prized the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Trust Him and put your faith in Him only. Seek to find God in even the things that seem upside-down in life. Everything is not always as it appears. We as Christians ought to know this with every part of our being because God sent salvation to us as a baby. How something begins and how it ends are not as they appeared outwardly, are they? Knowing Jesus is what gives clarity and allows us to see.

2Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

However, and with whomever, you are sharing Christmas with this year, in thought and speech, take those moments to adore Him.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God” – Psalm 46:10

Bless you, remain in Him, and be healthy and safe this Christmas
~Ayse