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Excerpt
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered will soon deliver you.
Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God.
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
The dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb
Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven's perfect lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is The Great I Am.
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
for He has visited and redeemed His people,
and has raised up a born of salvation for us.
Luke 1:68-69
Think of Mary of Nazareth, called from her girlhood dreams to travel the road of a lonely destiny, to be the mother of Jesus; think of how she shrank back trembling from the call and from the sword that was to pierce her heart, until at last she bowed her head, and said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord."
James Stewart
I wonder if ... Mary realized the power, authority, and majesty she cradle in her arms that first Christmas morning
Wrapped in swaddling clothes ... in an eight-pound bundle ... gaining nourishment from her breast ... was God. She had just given birth to the one who created her—the fullness of the godhead looking around with the wide-eyed wonder of a newborn.
God became a crying, nursing, diaper-wearing baby boy.
They tell me every mother counts the fingers and toes of her newborn child ... to make sure they're all there.
But I wonder if Mary realized those tiny hands that were curled around her fingers were the same hands that had formed mankind? Those little feet were the same feet that had walked on streets of gold and been worshipped by angels. That tiny infant voice had once spoken worlds into existence.
On that first Christmas morning when she kissed her newborn child, she wasn't just kissing a baby—she was kissing the face of God.
He seemed so tiny, wrapped tight in a long linen band and sleeping soundly like any other baby. He slept as though the world had not waited thousands of years for that moment.... As though all the sin and sorrow of the world was not His concern.
Ruth Bell Graham
One Wintry Night
A woman who fears the Lord,
she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
When Mary was visited by Gabriel and told she was to have a baby—and not just a baby but the baby, the one every Jewish girl hoped she would be privileged to bear—she didn't ask why but rather how. She could quite understandably have asked, "Why? And why now? Why here?" Instead, she simply asked, "How?" The answer to "How can I possibly do the will of God in this incredible situation?" was quite simple, given by the angel visitor: "The Holy Spirit...." Immediately Mary responded with a glad "I am the Lord's servant."
Jill Briscoe
Heartstrings
God became one of us ... with our limitations.
He left His ability to be everywhere. He left His ability to know everything. He, like us, had to get His information from the Father. He left His throne in heaven to become a newborn baby boy. What a way for God to enter the world! Who could have devised such a plan ... but God?
Jesus came to fulfill the law—because we couldn't.
And the only way He could fulfill the law was to become one of us. But how can you fulfill the law if it doesn't apply to you? How could God fulfill the law? It doesn't apply to Him. How could God covet His neighbor's wife? Who is God going to steal from? He owns it all!
By the incarnation,
God broke His silence.
Ignatius
The only way He could fulfill the law was to become one of us. To be tempted just like us ... but to say "no" to the temptation. Then, after saying "no" for thirty-three years,
He drank the cup, became our sin, took our beating, died in our place, and rose from the dead
And she brought forth her firstborn Son,
and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and
laid Him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:7
Hush, my babe; be still and slumber,
Holy angels guard thy bed,
Heavenly blessing without number
Gently resting on thy head.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
But I'm getting ahead of myself. What did Mary know? Mary had received her information from an angel (a messenger sent by God).
"Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: you will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call His name Jesus. He will be great. He will be called 'Son of the Highest.' The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; He will rule Jacob's house forever—there will be no end, ever, to His kingdom" (The Message).
(Continues...)
