10:00 a.m.
Someone was pounding on my door. I was elbow deep in bubbles in my kitchen sink and jammin to my tunes when that persistent knock would NOT go away.
As I flung open the door I was met with a very panicked person telling me that a tornado was heading towards our Indiana apartment complex and we needed to get down to the basement level.
As we all ran down to the lower level apartment, we could hear the power of the storm outside.
I could only stay down there for a while before I got antsy to see what was going on. So as one does during a tornado, I went out to our lobby area, surrounded by glass windows, to see if I could see the tornado.
The sky was jumble of eerie colors of greys, yellows, purples and greens. The wind was roaring fiercely but the tornado passed around us. And then all was still, that eerie quiet after the storm.
How about you? When have you been caught in a display of power that left you a little breathless and in awe?
Maybe you feel like your life has been upset by powers beyond your control this Christmas Season. The tornado has roared by and you have been left to pick up the pieces after the storm.
The power of the wind can be destructive, but when harnessed, it can bring a lot of good.
Like most things power can be used for good or for evil.
The Christmas story is also a story of power. It reveals the power of a man’s love for his woman. God’s love for humanity. And the power of a mother’s love for her son.
When Mary first found out from the angel that she was going to have a baby, she was plain weirded out. She had never been with a man and didn’t think that it was even possible for her to have a baby.
Luke 1:35 is the angels response to her question...
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
The power of God overshadowed Mary. By the power of God her womb would grow, shelter, and protect the Son of God for nine months. God entrusted the promised Messiah to be raised by the power of a Mother’s love.
Mary, a young Jewish woman of the ancient world would have known very well the stories of her people passed down from generation to generation.
She knew the story of the tabernacle, a large tent that God had her people to build when they were out in the wilderness after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt.
In that tent was a treasure box called the Ark of the Covenant filled with things to remind the people of God’s fulfilled promises to them.
God gave specific instructions for how the lid for this box was to built. He said they were to carve in the wood two angels that were to have their wings spread upward overshadowing the cover with them.
The cover was known as the Mercy Seat - it was the space where the presence of God would appear to the people. In Mary’s time, the ark of the covenant had been lost for hundreds of years.
And now many years later with that story echoing in her mind, May find herself surrounded by an angel and had the Holy Spirit overshadow her so that her womb would become the Mercy Seat. The baby, Jesus, that she would bear would be the very presence of God for the people.
But this time he would stay. He would live and walk amongst us. One day sacrifice himself so that we could be forgiven and have a relationship with the Almighty God.
Jesus began as a baby wrapped in the sacrifice of a mother’s love for her Son and would end his time wrapped in the sacrifice of his father’s love for this world.
The minute a woman learns she is pregnant she starts to make sacrifices to ensure the safety of her baby.
Growing a baby makes you feel like a superhero. A really tired, weak, superhero who wants to eat all the time and cannot get to the bathroom fast enough. Your brain tells you fruit and veggies and your belly argues back and demands french fries and chocolate shakes. Objects that get dropped on the floor no longer exist. You can’t sleep and you can’t stay awake. You don’t want to sleep like a baby - just want to sleep like your husband seems to be able to.
Maybe sacrifice is the superpower of a mother’s love. Mothers are willing to give something up, so that their love can stand up.
Why did God choose Mary? Perhaps he chose her for the strength of her sacrifice. For it is in our weakness that God is shown strong. It is on our sacrifices that God is revealed.
Maybe this is true, not just of a Mother’s love, but of any pure love.
In the Christmas season where materialism has rapidly snowballed and Amazon Prime has gently lulled us into personal indulgence, sacrificial love is a rare and precious treasure that shines powerfully like a bright light.
It shines like the bright Bethlehem star that lit up the night and led the way for others to find the Christ child.
Jesus, the Christ, who would grow to give something up, his very life, so that God’s love could stand up and walk right out of an empty tomb.
God seems to pour out his power on those who are willing to live out sacrificial love. Those who are willing to Give Something Up, so that Love Can Stand Up
Will you dare this Christmas Season, like Mary did so many years ago, to love sacrificially and Give Something Up, so that Love Can Stand Up?
