Eighth Day of Advent

 Sunday, December 6, 2020

Tell Me About the Christmas Baby:
An Advent Devotional Guide

 

“Now to Him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him….”
Romans 16:25-26 

Do we consider that we are “established” by a “mystery?” Down through the ages, God has been promising through the prophets that He was going to send the Messiah, an event so shrouded in mystery that no one really comprehended what the Messiah would be like! Today that mystery prevails, and often without understanding we are established in it.

As I write, I am sitting in a cardiac care waiting room, and next to me a family waits for news of a loved one. As each additional family member joins the clan, I hear them say that they are trusting Jesus as a precious life hangs in the balance. They join hands and pray to the Lord whose birthday we will soon celebrate. In the hour or so that I have waited here, I’ve seen how strong this family is because they are “established” in the “mystery” of who their Lord is! They cry a little but they are not tears of despair.

Paul wrote of this mystery in the first century. The people near me are still trusting that Mystery.

Father, We continue to praise you for your Holy Presence in a baby, even though we don’t fully understand. Amen.

Tell Me About the Christmas Baby:
An Advent Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Winter 2010
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator