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Who was the first person filled with Christmas joy? I’ll bet “the shepherds” was the first answer that popped into your mind. Well…notice the question was “person” not “persons”
You really should read the full account in Luke 1, but the short version is that Zechariah and Elizabeth are unable to have children. One day an angel appears and tells Zechariah that his wife will have a baby. He will be a special baby because he will be a forerunner to Jesus the Messiah. You know him as John the Baptist.
Six months later, the angel Gabriel appears to Elizabeth’s niece, a virgin named Mary. He tells her that she will become pregnant, not in the normal way, but by the Holy Spirit. Oh, and by the way, he tells her she will name the child Jesus. Mary responds in an accepting way.
So off Mary goes to tell this news to her aunt Elizabeth. Then, something strange happens (as if all of this to this point has not been strange enough). Elizabeth says to Mary…
Luke 1:44-45 (NIV2011)
“As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
The first person to experience Christmas joy was an unborn baby who experienced the joy months before the first Christmas. Maybe it’s just God’s subtle way of pointing out that Christmas is far more than just an event. Rather, it is something wonderful, and mysterious, and eternal. After all, before the Word became flesh, the Word was with God and was God.
Gratefully,
David Hulme
Senior Pastor