Hi, Friend!

Thank you for joining me for our third week of exploring God’s good and perfect gifts! If you’ve been following this series since the beginning, you’ll be relieved to know that when this post comes out, if all goes to plan, I’ll be out Christmas shopping for my sons because they have finally told us what they would like for Christmas.

Last week we took a 5-day look at the good and perfect gift of the Holy Spirit. As we near Christmas, for this week I’d like us to focus on the good and perfect gift of Jesus Christ. After all, without Jesus, we would not have the gift of being able to communicate with God directly or the gift of Holy Spirit and all of the “but wait, there’s more!” gifts within the gift that come with Holy Spirit.

Let’s call this portion of the series: Jesus, a Most Unexpected Gift

Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”

Luke 1:30-33 CSB

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be the virgin Mary?

We know she was young – maybe no more than 14 or 16 years old. We know God favored her. Other than that, we don’t know much about her except…

We know she was frightened by the angel’s greeting. Verse 29 tells us that she was “deeply troubled” by the angel’s message (CSB). Now, I’ve never seen an angel that I’m aware of, but I imagine that an angel’s appearance could be an unsettling experience. We also know that the angel reassured her by saying “Do not be afraid, Mary.”

Then, he goes on to give her what I believe was the most unexpected news imaginable – you’re going to have a son and God will make him a king over a kingdom that will last forever. Then, when Mary asks how that is possible because she’s never known a man physically, the angel goes on to tell her that the baby, whom she is to name Jesus, will be the Son of God, conceived through the Holy Spirit.

At that point, I’m pretty sure I would have fallen over in a dead faint. Have a baby without a human husband to father him!? A baby that is the Son of God, conceived by Holy Spirit!? Yep, you’d be picking me up off the floor for sure.

But Mary, well, Mary says, “May it happen to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38 CSB).

I’m sure she knew the prophecies about God’s promise for a Messiah, but I seriously doubt she ever dreamt that she’d be part of fulfilling it. How could she have seen this incredible gift coming; the gift of being the mother of the Son of God, the gift of being the one to carry and deliver God’s greatest gift into the world?

Truly, Jesus was a most unexpected gift to Mary.

And you know, from that day through today, Jesus continues to be a most unexpected gift.

The Hebrew people were looking for a warrior king to end Roman oppression and restore them to the Promised Land, but Jesus, the humble, Jewish carpenter wasn’t what they expected.

The woman at the well went out that day to get some plain old water to cook and clean with and instead, she left that well with the gift of living water, a gift that never runs dry (John 4:1-30).

The enemy thought he had thwarted God’s redemption plan by convincing the Pharisees and Romans to crucify Jesus (because we know all evil ideas come from the devil), but Jesus overcame the death of the cross, paying our sin debt, and opening the door for all to be saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Even today, just when we think we know how good He is, He reveals to us a deeper goodness. Just when we think we’ve reached the end of His grace, He extends more grace to us. Just when we think we have this forgiveness thing figured out, He teaches us a new lesson in His forgiveness.

Just when we think…well, anything – Jesus reveals Himself to us in new and unexpected ways. Jesus simply won’t be conformed to our thinking or contained in our box, and praise God, I am glad for that!

I’ll meet you here again tomorrow as we continue celebrating and learning about God’s most unexpected gift to us – Jesus!

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