Truly Pregnant With Jesus

Christmas is about believing.

Elizabeth, the mother of the prophet, John the Baptist, said of her cousin Mary…

“Blessed is she who believed, for this will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

From the beginning, Christmas has been about believing and pregnancy, and it remains so today.  Mary was believably pregnant.  To Mary, Joseph, Zacharias, and Elizabeth, it was not about believing in a myth or philosophy.  It was about very believable angels, aches, and changing bodies.  It was as real as any pregnancy is real as bodies stretch and birth pangs begin.  It was as real as labor and delivery in a shed borrowed for the night.  It was real life – not theory.  Heaven had invaded earth by way of a virgin cradled in the womb of BELIEF from conception to delivery.

To experience the real meaning of Christmas we must be willing to become “pregnant” with the belief that God has in fact come to earth in the person of His Son Jesus.  If we, too, believe, our lives will be stretched and changed as surely as Mary's, Joseph's, Elizabeth's and Zacharias' lives were stretched and changed.  No one carries a life inside them and does not change – especially the life of God!

Paul, the great Christian missionary, wrote to a confused, young church in Galatia and said,   “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”  (Galatians 4:19).  He was worried that the belief he knew had begun in them might not mature into a full understanding and complete Christian life.  His concern for Christians would be greater today if he visited our churches at Christmas.  I am not sure he would see many “pregnant” with a living Jesus.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to believe as Mary did.  The idea that God really does invade human history in order to save was taught to her from her birth as a Jew.  It is harder to believe today because we do not think we need saving anymore and we say little to our children about it.

Thank God Mary was ready for a pregnancy from God!  If she had said to the angel, “Thanks, but I just cannot believe that,” where would we be today?  Probably at the mall, but certainly not at church.

For Christians who truly believe as Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zacharias did, Christmas is as life changing as a real pregnancy.  It means the world to us to know He came and we are forever changed by His life in us.

 

Bud McCord

Abide International