5:00 p.m.
I found myself in the Los Vegas police station one morning. Some ninjas in the night outside my hotel decided to lighten the load from my blazer. They stealthily removed my car top carrier. They were generous ninjas and left my car. Thus I discovered in that Vegas police station... What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but the police can find you anywhere….
Man, Vegas has superpowers. I didn’t even gamble, I was just passing through and I still lost half of my earthly possessions.
I was relocating from the Midwest to California and everyone told me I should stay in Vegas because it was so cheap. Cheap is perfect when you are broke so I listened to my friends. They are no longer my friends.
I moved out here and did not know a soul.
Starting over is always a bittersweet endeavor. You are excited to say good-bye to the bad memories and optimistic to create new good ones and a little nervous, frightened even, to go somewhere new where you don’t know anyone.
How about you? Have you ever had to relocate or step into a new situation? A new job? A new relationship? Did you have mixed feelings of excitement and fear all rolled up into one?
You and I are not alone. The Christmas story is one of new beginnings.
In a little town called Nazareth God reached down from Heaven to begin a new story. That original Christmas so many years ago began with an angel proclaiming to a young Hebrew woman that she was about to become a new journey of motherhood.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end. Luke 1:30-33
Mary was shocked and confused. She had never been with a man and this did not seem possible.
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.
Talk about a life changing moment. God was going to be the Father of her child. A child who was going to be a King. A baby boy who was the Son of God. How would Joseph, her fiance respond? Her family? Her friends?
Maybe she agreed out of sheer shock. 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
She responded and and the angel left.
I don’t know how Mary held it together. I think at that point I’d be looking for some retail therapy, chocolate brownies, or a good cry.
But Mary’s heart was so full of trust. She had this deep seeded belief that God was with her and that he would sustain her in this new adventure.
She was willing to start anew, trusting God would see her through.
Maybe that is why God reached out to someone so young and innocent. Her heart and mind had not been corrupted by this world. Her purity was perfectly in line with the holiness of God.
But she was still human and she didn’t complain or stress eat. She just began anew….
She started over with what God put in her lap. Literally God put the Son of God in her lap.
She stopped what she was doing and began doing life in a different way.
The account tells us that after the angel left, that she packed up and went went to visit her relative Elizabeth and God used that visit to confirm his message to Mary through Elizabeth.
It wasn’t a mistake...she had heard it right...it was really happening.
Mary wrote a beautiful song that the Bible records where her soul glorifies the Lord.
When God gives you an opportunity for a new beginning is there a song in your heart?
Why yes Lisa, my life is a musical.
Mary’s life was no musical. There were no reality shows clamoring to make her famous. Like you and I her life was filled with great joys and great sorrows.
Her faith shines brightly in this Christmas story. She was willing to start anew, trusting that God would see her through.
She held on to what was important to her, her faith and her man Joseph. And she just started walking a new rode….one that led her to a little town of Bethlehem where she delivered her first baby just according to the birth plan every mom envisions. A warm comfy room with an awesome epidural….
She delivered that baby on a floor in a stable. But she held on to her family and continued to walk the road before her, to Egypt, back to Nazareth, all the way to the cross, and then an empty tomb.
The journey she began at Christmas was the greatest one of her life. She was willing to start anew trusting that God would see her through.
We always think of the New Year as the best time for new beginnings. But Christmas is also an opportunity for you to start anew. Christmas is about this amazing new baby, Jesus, Immanuel, God with us and his mother, Mary, who was willing to trust God with her new beginning.
Maybe God is relocating you, and if that is you, then God will see you through. But maybe God is giving you a fresh start this Christmas season just right where you are - at home with your spouse, or your children, or your parents. Your neighbors or your co-workers. A dream that he has planted in you heart.
Maybe this Christmas, like Mary, we stop what we have been doing to start going a new and better direction. What would happen if you lean into that new beginning that you so badly want?
This baby at Christmas reminds us that with God all things are possible. Start anew and God will see you through.
