Day # 23 Recipe for a Savior

IT IS TIME

Day # 23

Luke 2:6b-7 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son…

            “Dear, it is time!” she says to you as you sleep. “Is it time?” he asks you with that worried look on his face. The phone calls are made, the bag is put in the car, and off you go to the hospital. The moment you have been waiting for has arrived! After 9 months of joy, tiredness, sickness, struggle, growing, anticipation (along with a whole host of other emotions and feelings) the time comes for the baby to be born. With great excitement you make the drive to the nice, warm hospital with the birthing rooms.

            It wasn’t that way for Mary. It was a stable. Straw all around. (All right, so this really isn’t that different from the normal birth because most houses were dirt floors and mats were stuffed with straw. We see it as unusual but it really wasn’t that overly strange.) There is no midwife present. Joseph has to deliver his child there in a stable, with ox lowing and ass braying. The most ideal place? Not for us.

            But it is for the Lord. A Recipe for a Savior has taken a turn for wonderful. The baby is born in a stable. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes. He is placed in a manger. It is the most glorious event in the most amazing place. God had A Recipe for a Savior that He had told to Adam and Eve several thousand years before. He had passed that Recipe down through the ages. He had brought all the ingredients together. Now, in this place, at this time, with these two people, the Savior is born.

            Your Savior is born! That is right. Your Savior is born in a stable. A humble place but then then again, the Son of God did humble Himself and became a man. (Philippians 2:7-8) He did this for you and for your salvation. God was thinking of you the moment He gave that promise. He had you in mind as He added each ingredient to the Recipe. This moment in the stable is for you.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, what an amazing event You have brought forth on that night so long ago. You sent Your Son to be my Savior. That overwhelms me. Thank You. Be with me as I make these final preparations for the celebration of Christmas. Amen.

Deeper Thought: Anticipation, what has been some of the greatest moments of anticipation that you have experienced? What do you anticipate today as you look towards Christmas? What are some of the fears that are buried deep down inside that you pray that the Lord will help you to work through at this time?