The Gift
by Steve McVey
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary 2000 years ago, she was told that God's Spirit was about to come upon her and as a result she would give birth to Divine Life. What a shocking realization for a young Jewish girl. Her world was about to be forever changed. The question of her morality was about to come to the forefront. Her soon-to-be husband would need a visit from no less than an angel in order to believe her story. Her Child that was to be born would turn the religious applecart of His day upside down. Yes, things were about to change – in a big way. Christmas might seem sentimental to us today but when Jesus Christ was born it was shockingly radical in almost every imaginable way.
Someone has rightly said that grace which isn't disruptive isn't really grace. Deity breaking in on humanity and taking over, forever altering our lives and our circumstances, changing the way we see God, ourselves, and others. It's unsettling, to say the least. It takes control away from us and forces us to live in the place of constant faith, where some days are horribly wonderful and others are wonderfully horrible.
Jesus didn't come to make our lives better. He came so that we might die, right along with Him. In our co-crucifixion with Christ, He took away the old life we inherited from Adam and gave us another one in its place. The life He has given to us stands in stark contradiction to life as we used to know it. This Life isn't better. It's new.
In "This Life" we don't live for ourselves, but for others. We don't seek to gather but to pour ourselves out for the benefit of those around us. We don't assert our own agendas, but rather lay them down and allow Him to express His agenda through us in whatever way He chooses. We quit trying to be religious in an attempt to impress God, ourselves and others and begin to learn to be real, acting like who we really are in Him. We stop scrambling to carve out an enviable life for ourselves and instead just yield to death – the one we experienced with Him on His cross.
Mary had to die to a lot as the baby Jesus grew inside her. She died to the way she had anticipated her life would unfold. She died to her reputation. She died to the right to manage or even understand her life's circumstances. She died to her religious check and balance system where good girls have good things happen in life and bad girls get the bad stuff of life. She began to realize early on that God's ways aren't our ways, but they are better. She learned to yield to Him and in her "be it unto me according to thy word," (Luke 1:38), the door opened for the rest of the world to see the divine life she had been given by God's Spirit.
So it is to be with us. Let us choose to embrace Christmas in all of its implications. Let's give up our agendas, our reputations, our rights and yield to the growth of Christ, first within us and then through us so that all the world may see His glory. Let us agree with His Spirit that we will gladly embrace every disruptive aspect of grace that shakes us out of our comfort zones, breaking away the things that interfere with living as our authentic selves, and causing us to come to more fully and intimately know Him. To embrace His life and to see it grow in us – to see His life be produced through us – that is the greatest gift anyone could know. That is indeed a God-sized gift.
May you and your family be richly blessed during this Christmas season and may you cherish The Gift that exceeds everything this world has to offer.
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary 2000 years ago, she was told that God's Spirit was about to come upon her and as a result she would give birth to Divine Life. What a shocking realization for a young Jewish girl. Her world was about to be forever changed. The question of her morality was about to come to the forefront. Her soon-to-be husband would need a visit from no less than an angel in order to believe her story. Her Child that was to be born would turn the religious applecart of His day upside down. Yes, things were about to change – in a big way. Christmas might seem sentimental to us today but when Jesus Christ was born it was shockingly radical in almost every imaginable way.
Someone has rightly said that grace which isn't disruptive isn't really grace. Deity breaking in on humanity and taking over, forever altering our lives and our circumstances, changing the way we see God, ourselves, and others. It's unsettling, to say the least. It takes control away from us and forces us to live in the place of constant faith, where some days are horribly wonderful and others are wonderfully horrible.
Jesus didn't come to make our lives better. He came so that we might die, right along with Him. In our co-crucifixion with Christ, He took away the old life we inherited from Adam and gave us another one in its place. The life He has given to us stands in stark contradiction to life as we used to know it. This Life isn't better. It's new.
In "This Life" we don't live for ourselves, but for others. We don't seek to gather but to pour ourselves out for the benefit of those around us. We don't assert our own agendas, but rather lay them down and allow Him to express His agenda through us in whatever way He chooses. We quit trying to be religious in an attempt to impress God, ourselves and others and begin to learn to be real, acting like who we really are in Him. We stop scrambling to carve out an enviable life for ourselves and instead just yield to death – the one we experienced with Him on His cross.
Mary had to die to a lot as the baby Jesus grew inside her. She died to the way she had anticipated her life would unfold. She died to her reputation. She died to the right to manage or even understand her life's circumstances. She died to her religious check and balance system where good girls have good things happen in life and bad girls get the bad stuff of life. She began to realize early on that God's ways aren't our ways, but they are better. She learned to yield to Him and in her "be it unto me according to thy word," (Luke 1:38), the door opened for the rest of the world to see the divine life she had been given by God's Spirit.
So it is to be with us. Let us choose to embrace Christmas in all of its implications. Let's give up our agendas, our reputations, our rights and yield to the growth of Christ, first within us and then through us so that all the world may see His glory. Let us agree with His Spirit that we will gladly embrace every disruptive aspect of grace that shakes us out of our comfort zones, breaking away the things that interfere with living as our authentic selves, and causing us to come to more fully and intimately know Him. To embrace His life and to see it grow in us – to see His life be produced through us – that is the greatest gift anyone could know. That is indeed a God-sized gift.
May you and your family be richly blessed during this Christmas season and may you cherish The Gift that exceeds everything this world has to offer.
posted by Anonymous at 2:08 PM
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