Advent 6: A Special Child

The angel had said

‘You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus’.

In their conversation, Mary seemed to struggle to get past the ‘you will have a son’ bit which isn’t surprising. Mary was a virgin and so her becoming pregnant was a biological impossibility but beyond that, her head was probably spinning with how she was going to explain what was going on to everyone!

Over the next weeks and months Mary began to see more and more clearly how special her son was going to be.

The name Jesus means saviour

God sent Jesus into the world to save us and to offer us a way back to him.

Jesus would be great and will be called son of the most high

It is incredible to think that God chose to became human. Jesus (who John describes as ‘the word’) ‘became human and made his home among us’ (John 1.14).

It is remarkable the way that the God who knows and sees everything and who is all powerful chose to make himself vulnerable. He limited himself to a human brain and to what he could see and experience with his human senses.

Jesus came to this world in such a vulnerable and humble way; he was running the universe with his Father one minute and in the next he was a foetus. Although it cost Jesus so much, he came anyway because he loves the world that he had created and he came so that he could save us and to offer us a way back to God.

If you want to think some more about what it meant for Jesus to make himself vulnerable then I would suggest reading a Parable for Christmas which explores this theme further.

In this selfless act that is called the incarnation, Jesus demonstrates how much God loves the world. Rather than just telling us to worship him because we ought to, he shows why he is worthy of our worship.

If Jesus has done all this for us, what is an appropriate response from us?

This is a part of a series of short thoughts for advent to help us to consider the events surrounding the birth of Jesus as we prepare ourselves for Christmas. You can look at the other advent reflections by clicking here.

There are separate posts for each day in December leading up to Christmas day, so check back tomorrow to see what happens next between Mary and the angel.

You can read more about Mary’s encounter with the angel in Luke 1 starting at v26.