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I've decided Christmas is to do with 'arriving'! Remember those days of our childhood when we were bursting with anticipation because the presents had arrived, or when the more daring of us tried to stay awake to see the old man in the red coat bringing his sack of presents to our bedroom? My days as a schoolmaster always saw the Christmas term conclude with an excitement and anticipation that made it so different from any other. Party time was around the corner. Relations were coming. Christmas was arriving!

Behind it all was hidden a mystery. The creator was arriving on His planet. The Almighty was arriving hidden within humanity. A divine babe was arriving. A virgin would introduce a miraculous child to the world. That first Christmas, God arrived to rescue His world from the tyranny and torture of the evil that had invaded it.

And there lies another mystery. So few have discovered its secret. You see, so few realised that this pregnant peasant girl, carrying the stigma of a society that disapproved of unwed motherhood, was truly carrying a child conceived by God Himself, The Holy Spirit. Even Joseph, the kindly man she was engaged to marry did not see the secret, the mystery. So an angel was sent to reveal the secret, "Mary's Babe was conceived of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1.20). That Child was born and grew to become the Saviour of the world. That salvation comes to this world individually, person by person, rather like He did to Mary.

The Bible says that "He that has the Son has life (Everlasting life, the life of the Holy Spirit) and he that does not have the Son does not have life" (1 John 5.12). The next verse says that he wants us to know that we have this eternal life. Some know and some are not sure and some do not know at all. There's the mystery! This puzzling mystery was too much for Mary herself to believe. The angel Gabriel was sent to reveal it to her. After her initial amazement her response was one of humble submission to and acceptance of God's will. The Christ was conceived within her!

When we can follow her example - to seek forgiveness, to make room for the Christ to be conceived within us and humbly welcome Him into our lives - the mystery is revealed and we too shall know we have eternal life, we shall live for ever with this great Saviour of the world.

Colin

 

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