Daily Devotional for Tuesday, December 16

The Delivery by Mary

“And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn,” Luke 2:6, 7.

“Jesus was born so that we could be born again.” I have been unable to determine the source of this quote, but each year in December I use this adage on our church sign to remind our church, and the passers-by, that the birth of Jesus opens the gates of Heaven to all who believe.

            God has a unique way of using the natural to deliver the eternal. Today’s reading gives us the record of Mary’s delivery of baby Jesus into this world. Scripture does not contain a more tender scene than Mary, an ordinary Jewish girl, in the stable, giving birth to the baby Jesus.

   Often we speak of the miraculous birth of Jesus, when what we are talking about is the miraculous conception of Jesus. Make no mistake about it, Jesus conception was a miracle, having been the work of the Holy Spirit, but He was born just like you and me! The delivery was natural, but the Savior is supernatural!

            This serves as a reminder that God uses the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). Only God can take a simple fisherman, like Peter, and make him a fisher of men. Moses, a keeper of sheep in the desert, stood before Pharoah, the most powerful man on earth. David, a teenager, was victorious over the warrior giant Goliath. A lad’s lunch furnished a feast for thousands of hungry people. Little is much if God is in it. God is not concerned with strength or status; He and He alone can look upon the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

FINAL THOUGHT

The ability common to all faithful servants of God is availability. Mary made herself available to God. Are you available?

John Nations