For those of us who have big expectations, who want to think ahead, who want to have the best Christmas possible, allow me to share some safe expectations about this season for your consideration:
Expect a Divine Disruption.
Having a baby wasn’t on Mary’s radar. She was planning a wedding. It certainly wasn’t on Joseph’s radar. He knew he and Mary had been pure in their relationship. There was no reason to think a baby would be part of their beginning together. But God disrupted the plans and lives of Joseph and Mary to accomplish His plan. It would be a disruption that would come with great blessing and great sacrifice.
It is obvious from Scripture that both Mary and Joseph belonged to God. Their hearts were His. They quickly surrendered their plans in order to embrace God’s call. I’ve found, the closer we are to God, the easier it is to surrender when He asks us to. How we have come to admire the faith and boldness of Joseph and Mary and their willingness to cooperate with the plan of God. What would it take for us to be open to a Divine interruption that has the potential to change the course of the world?
Expect the Working of a Divine Plan.
Every event in the Christmas story from the bright star to the Wise Men from afar, the virgin birth and the place where Jesus would enter onto the world’s stage—every detail had been foretold. It had been planned. God knew what He was doing in the sending of Jesus from the beginning of time. Joseph and Mary couldn’t have understood every implication when they agreed to take part in God’s plan, but they knew God was executing something they could never have conceived, never have expected, and never could have accomplished without His help. There are over 200 prophecies about the coming of Christ into the world. They were spoken hundreds of years before Jesus came. His appearance wasn’t random. It was a carefully, strategically calculated plan.
God is a planner. You are not merely living a life sort of as an island unto yourself. You are a character in a story of love and purpose and your story is being written by the hand of the Almighty, Loving God. It is executed as you yield yourself to respond to God in faith.
When things get hectic this Christmas, when your heart is broken because someone is missing at your table and you wonder what God was thinking in calling them home, when the expectations of others don’t fit the size of your wallet, when things that you are counting on to happen don’t happen for some reason, just know God is still in control. He won’t abandon you. He will still be working in your life to write His story.
I love Psalm 138:8 in the New Living Translation: The LORD will work out his plans for my life— for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever.
Expect a Divine Miracle.
You know that news of the Virgin Birth had to have traveled far and wide. Why would Joseph corroborate Mary’s story if he hadn’t believed a miracle had come upon her? If Joseph wasn’t fully convinced that Mary had conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, he would have been hunting down the guy responsible so that he could take him out. He knew it was a miracle!
There were angelic visitations. There was someone who became mute and then was able to speak again. There was a barren woman in an advanced age who conceived John the Baptist. There were people traveling from a far country, people taking off of work to seek the Christ-child. The star that shone over Bethlehem was a miracle in some form or fashion. Many people encountered a miracle in order to see Jesus for themselves.
I believe God has a miracle for you this Christmas season. Are you open to it? Do you desire it? Are you praying for it? Will you participate in it when it comes? Will you allow God to be seen and the story of His working in your life to be told when it takes place? Can you allow God to adjust your expectations this Christmas?
There was nothing picture-perfect about the night Jesus was born. The scene in the stable was chaotic at best. Bethlehem was anything but quiet the night Jesus was born. Mary gave birth in an animal shelter after traveling quite a distance. She and Joseph didn’t have their families in a waiting room ready to celebrate with them. It was certainly less ideal. It surely was not the kind of moment they had dreamed about as they would welcome their child into the world, but because Jesus was there, it was perfect. Because they had allowed God to work His plan, it was special. Because they had been open to a miracle, it was Divine.
If you are looking for a God to meet your expectations, Jesus isn’t for you. But if you are looking for a God to rescue you from sin, to give you a home in Heaven, and to work miracles in and through your life, Jesus is the One you need to turn to today. Expect Him to be speaking to you, calling to you, challenging you, working in you and working through you this Christmas season.
