A Return to Wonder: Soaking It In | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church Podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Merry Christmas.

My name is Ashley, and I get to serve as the kids' pastor here.

Those are the parents whose kids are other places.

Christmas is my favorite time of year.

This year I had Christmas music playing in our car on the way home from trick-or-treating.

We probably put up our live Christmas tree as far before Thanksgiving as we can find one.

There's a picture that you'll see of my daughter standing in front of it.

That picture was taken the day before Thanksgiving this year.

And every year we purchase a few more strands of lights for the front of our house.

And there's another picture of my two kids who are standing by their favorite part of our yard.

I love to make the Christmas season just a little bit longer because there's so much fun to be had, there's so many treats to be eaten, and there's just so little time to pack it all in.

In the midst of the Christmas hustle of buying gifts, decorating the tree, and holiday parties, it can be easy to be distracted from what God is doing in our lives.

We're in this series called A Return to Wonder, where we're asking this question: what if there is a deeper reality to the Christmas season that we have been missing all along?

And if that's true, how do we return to the wonder of this magical time of year?

When it comes to Christmas, we're so familiar with the nativity and it gets all tangled up with all the other parts of Christmas that it tends to lose its sense of wonder.

Through this series, we're taking a fresh look at the birth of Jesus and the nativity to allow our hearts to return to the wonder of God with us.

This morning, we're looking at the story of Mary, Jesus' mother.

Through the story of Mary, we discover how God invites us to soak in the wonder of his faithfulness.

As I begin, I want to give you a little background about who Mary was and where we find her in this story.

Mary was a young Jewish woman from a town called Nazareth, which isn't exactly the place where you want to tell people that you're from.

It was one of those places that the general belief was nothing really good comes from Nazareth.

Mary was betrothed to a young man named Joseph, and this betrothal was an arranged marriage, which typically took place in a girl's younger teenage years and in a boy's older teenage years.

So those are the ages that we find Joseph and Mary as their story begins.

Mary would have been preparing for her upcoming marriage, getting her home ready, planning her future with Joseph.

And this is when her life was completely interrupted by a visit from an angel of the Lord.

And that's where we'll pick up the story.

Luke 1, 28 says, the angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored.

The Lord is with you.

Can you imagine that greeting?

What a shock for all of a sudden an angel to be right in front of you, declaring that you are highly favored by God.

I think our initial response would be similar to Mary's.

The next line says, Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel goes on to say, do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.

You who are highly favored, you have found favor with God.

We often think of favor as someone receiving more than others, maybe more than we're receiving.

Maybe an extra big slice of pie at a family dinner, or a promotion or raise at work, or maybe a prayer answered when ours feel like they're left unheard.

But that's not what this phrase, highly favored, refers to here.

Highly favored means being a recipient of God's grace.

Mary was highly favored and unaware of it.

She was troubled at the angel's greeting.

She may have been thinking, does he have their own house?

Does he know who I am?

Or wondering, why did God choose me?

Who am I to be highly favored?

Mary was highly favored, not because she was special or godly or had done anything to deserve this title, but simply because she had received God's grace.

We tend to place Mary on this pedestal.

She is the mother of Jesus, after all.

We honor her in beautiful artwork.

She's been named a saint.

But there's actually something remarkable that we can see ourselves and our own identity through her story, through this introduction of her story.

Mary isn't the only one through Scripture that God has described as highly favored.

The Greek word for highly favored is found in just one other place in Scripture.

In Ephesians 1:6, Paul uses the same word to describe God's grace.

Ephesians 1:6

He wrote his glorious grace, which he has freely given us.

If we back up a couple of verses to verse 4, we get a full picture of what God is saying, what Paul is saying here.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

His glorious grace, which he has freely given us.

This favor that Mary had came from God's deep love for her.

Mary was highly favored.

And as we see in Ephesians, you have been chosen by God.

You are highly favored and maybe unaware of it.

This favor only comes from God's great love.

Friends, you are deeply loved.

We are deeply loved by God.

This same favor rests on you as it did on Mary.

This is how God saw Mary.

This is what the angel declared to her.

And this is how God sees you.

You are chosen to be a recipient of God's glorious grace.

You may be feeling troubled at this, like Mary did, and have questions swirling around, just like Mary.

Does God really know who I am?

Why would God choose me?

Who am I to be highly favored?

Because of God's great love for you.

You are highly favored.

God chose you, God is for you, and God is with you.

Mary was highly favored, and God was with her.

And once the angel told her her standing with God, he then went on with the promise from God.

We read his words, he says, You will conceive and give birth to a son.

You are to call him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever.

His kingdom will never end.

The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God, for no word from God will ever fail.

This was the long-awaited king and messiah that had been prophesied and promised so many generations before.

As a student and a student of her culture and heritage, Mary understood the weight and wonder of this calling and responded with humility and faith.

I am the Lord's servant.

May your word to me be fulfilled.

Being pregnant with the Messiah was a great honor.

Mary would be the one to usher the Savior into the world.

And being pregnant before her marriage to Joseph with a baby that was not his would bring great misunderstanding and shame for the rest of her life.

Mary would walk through her days with this reputation of what people perceive to be great sin, even though she had done nothing wrong.

And she accepted this graciously and faithfully.

After this encounter with the angel, hearing God's message, she went to visit her relative, Elizabeth, who was miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist.

When Mary arrived, Elizabeth's baby leapt in her womb for joy.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke over Mary, confirming the faith that she saw in her.

Elizabeth said, Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.

As Mary heard from the angel and now had this confirmation from Elizabeth, we see her respond to what God was doing.

How does one respond to this favor of God?

As we experience God's goodness and faithfulness and favor, our natural response is to glorify him.

Mary responded with this beautiful song of praise.

This song is referred to as the Magnificat, which means my soul magnifies the Lord.

This portion of scripture is highly revered by many.

It's been memorized and written into songs because of its beauty and power.

As I read this, let the words of her song wash over you and listen to the way that Mary praises God.

She said, My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me.

Holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm.

He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.

She declares who God is and what he has done and his faithfulness in fulfilling his promises.

Some of these phrases can be a little lost on us.

It's very Old Testament language that maybe we aren't very familiar with.

God's promise to Israel and helping Abraham, his promise to Abraham, that doesn't really resonate with us now, does it?

But I want to unpack this a little bit.

I want us to really feel the significance of this.

Mary's song connects to at least 13 different Old Testament passages.

Mary's familiarity with the Old Testament shows her love for God and his word.

God had promised Abraham a Messiah through his family line.

The people of Israel were following God and trusting in his promise and had waited for thousands of years.

As an Old Testament believer, Mary's hope of salvation rested in God's promises.

And now Mary saw that she had an important role in fulfilling God's promise to Israel through her song that is filled with wonder at what God has done and what he's currently doing in her.

We see Mary reflecting on the ways that God had been faithful and loving to her people.

So everything that we've talked about so far is leading up to the birth of Jesus.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then journeyed home.

And after this, Joseph and Mary made their way to Bethlehem for a census that was taken.

This is where Joseph was from.

And this is where we pick up the story again in Luke 2, 6.

While they were there in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.

What I want to focus on here is the humble nature of Jesus' birth.

Joseph and Mary may have been in Bethlehem for some time before Jesus was born.

There's a strong possibility that they would have tried to stay with Joseph's relatives.

The term for inn or guest room may have referred to a guest room in someone's home rather than a hotel.

And this likely would have been full of all of Joseph's other relatives who were coming for the census.

As Joseph's family all gathered in Bethlehem, they would have learned that Mary was pregnant before her and Joseph were married.

And this was a really big deal in their culture.

Joseph's family may have not accepted them, which may have led to them not being welcome in the home.

However, there's no drama in how this is told.

There's no search for a variety of places to stay as Mary is breathing as she's in labor.

There's no heartless innkeeper turning them away in the middle of the night.

There simply wasn't space for Joseph and Mary.

So instead, they found some other place for Mary to give birth that wasn't in the inn.

What we commonly see is a stable, but some scholars think Jesus was actually born in a cave.

And then Mary placed the baby in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals.

The most high, the king of Israel, the long-awaited Messiah, one who should have been uplifted and exalted, had the most humble of births.

His mother, a teenage girl.

His birthplace, in a cave, his first bed, a feeding trough for animals.

And his first visitors, not family, but a bunch of smelly, dirty shepherds.

As we continue in the story, we read about the nearby shepherds who were visited by a choir of angels singing God's glory, sharing with them the arrival of Jesus.

Luke writes, The shepherds hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.

And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

As the shepherds saw baby Jesus, they couldn't help but tell everyone they knew.

But Mary has a different response.

Verse 19, we see Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Mary was soaking it in.

She could have proclaimed it, and it would have been totally appropriate.

This was her news to share.

But instead, she soaked it in, both earlier in her song of what was to come, and now in the fruition of that message with her baby in her arms.

Mary was more caught up in what God was doing than in her complicated and less than ideal circumstances.

This was a nine-month journey for her.

And now she was on the other side.

Nine long months of waiting and hoping and believing in what the angel had told her.

Nine long months of aches and pains and morning sickness.

Nine long months of the anticipation growing of holding her baby and laying her eyes on her Savior.

I don't want this amount of time to pass us by because we read it so quickly in the text.

In Mary's song, she covered thousands of years of God's faithfulness.

The people of Israel had been waiting since Genesis, since Adam and Eve, for the promised Messiah.

And when the angel spoke, Mary knew that the Messiah was finally coming, but in nine months.

As someone who has carried two babies for that same nine months, I want to let you in on a little secret if you haven't done that.

It's really long.

Especially the final month that seems to go on and on and on and on, and the days just continue going as you're waiting for the arrival of your little baby.

Mary had time to sit with this message from the angel.

She had time to dream about her baby boy and imagine what he would look like, what his personality would be like.

Mary went from the anticipation of being used by God to now beholding both her precious baby and who she knew to be the savior of her people.

As Mary held her baby, she was beholding the reality that God is faithful to his people and keeps his promises.

Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

How often do we jump to telling our people by posting or sharing instead of pondering and treasuring?

How often do we quit caught up in the to-do list and the colored boxes on our calendar that we miss what God is doing in our lives right now?

And how often do we pause to look back, to remember what God has done?

How much of the wonder of God is lost on us because we just move through life too quickly?

This Christmas season, God is doing something in each of our lives, and I don't want us to miss it because we have presents to wrap and parties to attend and just one more target trip to make.

So how do we do this?

How do we treasure today?

How do we intentionally soak in what God is doing when the pull of our culture is to just keep going and going?

I want to share with you one way that I have soaked in and treasured God's faithfulness over the years.

Every year around this time, I turn on my Christmas tree, I play some worshipful Christmas music, and maybe pour some sparkling cider in my favorite snowman mug.

And before I jump to the new year and new year's resolutions, I reflect on what God has done in my life over the last year.

I think back to prayers that He's answered.

Sometimes those prayers are recent, and sometimes I've been praying them for years.

And this morning I'd love to share a couple of those reflections with you.

A prayer that God has answered for my husband and I this year is one that we had when we moved into our home a few years ago.

We prayed that our home would be a space where we could gather people, where they would feel loved and known and cared for.

And then a pandemic hit.

And it felt like this dream that we had was ripped away from us as we logged onto Zoom again and again.

But then this fall, our small group finally began meeting in person on our back deck around our fire pit.

And I've been reminded of this desire of my heart, and I've seen how God has answered that prayer and how He has been faithful to us.

Sometimes, though, we get to see those prayers answered, right?

But that's not what all of life looks like, is it?

You may be sitting here in a deep season of grief or struggle, unsure of how God is showing up right now.

For over a decade, I have dealt with chronic pain.

I have no formal diagnosis because the cause is unclear.

And with no diagnosis, there's no possible cure or treatment.

But I believe that God can heal my body.

I pray for this often, but sometimes when it's been a long season or the pain is a lot, I'm feeling discouraged.

I don't want to ask anymore.

And in those moments, that's where God shows up.

Usually in a song or a scripture, he'll remind me of his faithfulness through my struggle.

One that I often go to is Psalm 73, 26.

My flesh may fail, but my God is the strength of my heart forever.

Even in the suffering, when I'm lying in bed at the end of a long day with my body screaming in pain, God is with me.

And I can be confident that God is my strength and that he will heal my body, either in this life or in life eternal with him.

As I think of the ways that God has been faithful and kept his promises, I can be sure that he will do this too.

When we treasure what God has done for us and really soak that in, we're able to trust that God will continue to be faithful.

As Mary sang her song, she looked back on God's faithfulness and believed that he would continue to keep his promises.

This Christmas, let's take our cue from Mary and soak in that the God of the universe, our King and Savior, came to be with us because of his deep love for us.

Take time this week, this Christmas week, to reflect on God's faithfulness in your life.

Where has God shown up for you?

In both the big and the small, in both the suffering and in the celebration.

God is working all around us, and we need to slow down to be able to see Him.

As you ponder, notice the wonder of God and give yourself space to soak in, soak that in and treasure those things in your heart.

Don't let this season pass you by without soaking in what God has done.

Friends, you are chosen.

You are deeply loved.

You are highly favored.

God is faithful, God is with you, and God is for you.

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