This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about …
- Matthew 1:18a

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching. We’ll celebrate God’s generosity toward us and to our community. Life isn’t perfect, but God is good and he loves us.

And, then, in the blink of an eye, we’ll be hurtling into the Christmas season. Christmas always seems to come as a surprise.

The first Christmas surprised everyone. We’ll be looking at the Christmas story and God’s Christmas surprise over the next four weeks … leading up to Christmas Eve.

Today, we want to start with the concrete, historical nature of Christmas. The Christmas story isn’t just a great story; it’s history. This story really happened. Jesus the Messiah was born into our broken, weary, fractured world.

None of the characters in the Christmas story were prepared for the incredible events that came their way. Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, the wise men … all of them got caught up into the Christmas story and all of them were surprised in some spectacular way by the contours that the story took.

As we approach the Christmas season and prepare to celebrate God’s presence with us, we have to carve out space in our hearts to be surprised by Jesus. For many of us, the Christmas story is almost infinitely familiar. Over time, the story can begin to feel like a myth or a fable to us. The rough edges and historical roots of the story can be lost.

But God wants to meet us in the real world. He enters human history and sets up his tent alongside our own.

Will you do something today to begin to prepare your heart for whatever God’s Christmas surprise is for you this year?

Take a moment today and try to write out the Christmas story for yourself – from memory – to see what elements of it are bubbling around in your brain. Add as many details as you can. What do you see?