Questions for a Quiet Christmas #13

Before we look at today's passage, let's remind and refresh ourselves on those first two overriding questions for this quiet Christmas:  Do I love darkness more than light in my own life? and Am I a Child of God?, which we then put together to ask: Am I hiding in the darkness? Am I living like a Child of God? Let us not lose sight of those questions throughout our study.

After spending a few days in Psalm 139, we return to probably the most interesting prophesy of Isaiah, which is in chapter 7: 

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 

This is the passage Gabriel quoted as he brought the message to Joseph about the Child Mary was to have.  It was the support passage for the announcement that Mary had not been unfaithful to her vows of betrothal, but that God the Holy Spirit had placed within her this child.  That fact is that behind and before the picture of the holy family in the barn is this most dramatic event: the incarnation. This statement brings to our minds and hearts a most important question: Do I believe in miracles? Do I believe God acts in history at times in ways that supercede His creative design and the effects of the Fall? Do I believe Jesus Christ is God the Son taking on human form? It is one of those questions that divides believers from unbelievers, those in the light from those in darkness, those who are children of God from those who are not.  Without the miracle of the incarnation, the Christmas story is nothing more than another warm and fuzzy Hallmark movie. Let us not make our Christmas celebration less than it should be. It's a miracle.