Last year, at the beginning of my vicar year in Texas (a vicar is a pastoral intern), I wrote myself a letter predicting what would happen during my yearlong vicar year. I tried predicting changes in my family and life. I tried predicting what I would learn from the year. One thing I didn’t predict. You probably guessed it, Prince Henry and Megan Markle leaving the royal family…and COVID. Last year, no one expected how much COVID would change everything. Even still, COVID continues to affect our Thanksgiving and Christmas plans. One man I knew last year thought it would only last one weekend, calling the first Sunday after COVID was all over the news, COVID Sunday. He even boldly said after the service, “if we have learned anything from COVID Sunday, it is that nothing has changed,” (he should have knocked on wood). Then, everything changed. The first two weeks, everything changed daily, if not hourly. My pastor and I would meet daily for three or four hours to talk through ministry plans to our members during this crisis. Then, the next day, everything changed. Our plans constantly changed. At one point, we stopped planning, because it felt useless. Maybe you can sympathize with our feelings as your jobs and lives were changed. School went online, nursing homes were shut off from the outside world, layoffs, the stock market plummeted. If, last year on Christmas Eve, you had written yourself a letter predicting what 2020 would look like, what would you have written? If you were to open that letter today, you might laugh at the ignorance of a year-ago you, I know I did. Nothing happened as expected. Yet, the amazing truth is that, as a Christian, you can say that God has a plan and that this crazy year happened according to his plan. Even more so, as we reflect on God’s Word, you could say that not only does God have a plan, but
God loves it when his plan comes together for his purpose.
Now, put yourself in the place of Mary and Joseph. If they wrote themselves a letter to be opened the day Jesus was born, what do you think would be in the letter? It probably wouldn’t have included a rushed trip of about 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, which might have taken about 8 days traveling with a woman in the late stages of pregnancy. Can you imagine walking from Mequon to Madison with a pregnant woman (they might not have had a donkey)? Their letter probably didn’t include having the guest room of relatives full so there was no space for them. Their letter probably wouldn't have included a manger for their child’s crib. Nothing happened for them as expected. How do you think Mary and Joseph handled God’s unexpected plan? Did Joseph worry every step of the way to Bethlehem? Were Mary and Joseph glad to arrive in Bethlehem or did their worries increase as they realized there was no proper place for them to stay?
God did write his plan for them in letters, given through prophets that then were collected into the Old Testament. There, God promised a child born of King David’s line in David’s city, his people’s Savior. This promised child was sent to restore the relationship between God and people, a relationship fracture at the very beginning. This child, who Mary was carrying, was to be born in Bethlehem according to God’s plan. That plan is God’s gift.
What did you buy for your loved ones to be opened for tomorrow? Bless your heart if you are someone that spends a lot of time wrapping each gift intricately, I am not. I wrap merely to hide the gift; it is not part of the presentation. So, how do you imagine your loved one reacting to your gift? How would you respond if, as they open it, their smile fades to a frown then melts farther into anger, which then gets directed at you? “How could you buy this for me? Don’t you know I don’t want this?” How do you feel: frustrated, hurt, perplexed, appalled? Their reaction shows how much they appreciate the time and energy you put into their gift. Negatively reacting to your gift only hurts your relationship with them and can even break it apart.
God’s plan for you is his gift to you. Thinking over the last year, how did you handle God’s plan, his gift? Were you upset that COVID canceled all your vacation plans, time with family, and work? Were you frustrated that your regular daily routine was interrupted? At times like this, you are tempted to become angry at God’s plans for you or at least become dissatisfied with them! Your reaction to his plan reflects on your relationship with him. How should he react to your bitterness towards his carefully planned and wrapped gift for us?
He doesn’t do what you would expect, separating you from him forever. Instead, he points you to his Son, his greatest gift. God’s plan culminated in this great gift. This gift is wrapped for you. First, God wrapped himself in flesh for you to restore his relationship with you, he placed himself in the womb of Mary, because there was no other way to win your salvation. Then, Mary wrapped God in swaddling clothes, placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Later, that same baby would die with everything that separates you from God to restore your relationship with God. Joseph of Arimathea would take God’s dead body down. Then, he would wrap his body in burial linens; then, place him in a tomb, in which no one had been laid. Much like he only needed to borrow the manger to be laid in, he only needed to borrow the tomb to be laid in because God did not stay dead but was raised to show that God has restored his relationship with you. Nothing separates him from you. God’s plan is as good as done and you are already standing with him forever in heaven. That’s God’s plan for you.
This is the good news of great joy for all people! The first third of the words in Luke 2 are focused on God’s plan coming together. But that is only a third of the account. The other two-thirds are focused not on Mary and Joseph, but the shepherds and angels. Why is that? God wants you to focus on the joy of God’s plan coming together, because God loves it when his plan comes together and he wants people to know it.
So, God reveals his joy through his angels, which in turn gives the angels joy because his angels love it when his plan comes together. They praise him for it: glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
When the shepherds heard the news that their Savior came, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby. It was true, just as the angels told them! They told all those present with Mary and Joseph what the angels said. Then, they returned glorifying and praising God because God’s people love it when God’s plan comes together.
When the others with Mary and Joseph heard the report of the shepherds, they were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. They could hardly believe the good news they were hearing! God’s plan of salvation is coming together.
When Mary heard it, she put this message away quietly in her heart to be protected and remembered, as one might treasure the first steps of their child. She also pondered this message as well, not just in joyful awe but thinking through what this means for her life and the life of her newborn son.
You, too, love it when God’s plan comes together. Their joy is yours. This joy can be expressed like the shepherds or angels, loud and proud for all to hear. Or, you can express this joy through quiet moments of treasuring and pondering God’s plan like Mary.
God gives this joy to you with a smile on his face, because God loves it when his plan comes together. He loves when his plan comes together, because he loves you. As Jesus gave Mary a deep joy when he giggled, smiled, or cooed as babies do, so you also give God genuine joy because he has made you his child. You are his bundle of joy. He did everything for you, so you could be with him. This includes both his plan to send Jesus for you as well as carrying you through this crazy year. To him, you are the gift he can’t wait to unwrap from this veil of sin and tears and keep forever.
Dear Lord, because of your plan for us, your joy has become ours as we look into the manger and see how much you love us. Let that joy permeate our hearts. Also, help us trust you always, no matter what comes into our life. Amen.
