What is Christmas about, really?
Before there were big box stores and little boutiques, before big budget advertising and blow out sales, before Christmas was for retailers to finish in the black…it was just about a baby born in a manger to change the world.
To connect with Christmas, we have to go beneath the presents to the Presence.
I like the way author Len Sweet talks about it. At Christmas, we spend most of our time focused on buying things and receiving things.
What Christmas is About
But Christmas is not about consumption, it’s about conception.
It revolves around a miraculous conception.
The true gift of Christmas is that God wants to conceive in us something bigger than we can conceive on our own.
When told that she would bear the Son of the Most High God, Mary asked in shock, “How will this be? I have never been with a man.”
Always Bigger
What God wants to birth in us is always bigger than we can conceive. It doesn’t matter whether we are in our 80’s or in our teens. When we start to see the big picture of what God wants to do in our lives, it’s unnerving.
Like Mary, we desperately ask, “But how can I know this is really from God?”
The Signs
Look for the signs. People and events will confirm what God wants to do.
After the angel Gabriel announced that God had chosen her to bear God’s Son, Mary willingly surrendered to her unique calling. In those quiet moments after Gabriel left, she must have thought, “Did I dream that? Maybe I just had a bad piece of meat.”
Still a bit bewildered, she hurried down to see her relative Elizabeth. In her mind, she thought, “If this is really true, then Elizabeth who has never had a child and is too old to bear children will be six months pregnant, just as the angel said.”
As soon as Mary walked in the door and said, “Hello,” the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped. Scripture says at that moment Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and said in a loud voice,
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
Luke 1:42-43 (NIV)
Mary’s mind was reeling now. Elizabeth could not have known what the angel Gabriel said to her.
Elizabeth explained, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”
It was a sign.
Becoming a Leaper
When do you leap? When your child or grandchild has her first hit in a baseball game or he scores the winning soccer goal, I’m guessing you’ll leap!
When that big business deal that you didn’t think would happen comes through or your long lost loved one walks through the door unexpectedly, you turn into a leaper.
Watch any college or pro football game that comes down to the last play. When one team wins on a last second score, grown men leap. A lot.
We leap when something happens that is so good, we can’t hold it in any longer.
That’s what the baby did in Elizabeth’s womb, he leaped for joy.
Knowing something world changing had been conceived in Mary, Elizabeth looked her right in the eye and said,
“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
Luke 1:45 (NIV)
Receive the Miracle
What is God conceiving in you?
Mary did not receive the miracle God conceived in her through her reproductive organs. She received it through her ears. She heard what God said to her, and she believed. Any of us can do that.
God wants something to be born in you.
Where has there been barrenness in your life that only God can change?
Where can you believe God for the impossible?
We are flesh made spirit.
Jesus is spirit made flesh.
God with us. Emmanuel.
When it comes to a visitation from God, we are all to be like Mary.
“Let it be, Lord. Be born in me. Conceive in me what you want. Whatever purpose you have in mind for me, I am your servant.”
But be careful. Something so world changing may be born in you, you may want to leap.
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Roger Ross
A native of Cambridge, Illinois, Roger has served as a pastor in Texas, the British Channel Island of Guernsey, and Illinois. While in Illinois, he led teams that planted two new churches and served for 10 years as the lead pastor of one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the Midwest. It was his privilege to serve as the Director of Congregational Excellence in the Missouri Conference before coming into his current role with Spiritual Leadership, Inc (SLI).
Roger now comes alongside pastors, non-profit leaders and their leadership teams as an executive coach, specializing in leadership that inspires change. As a side gig, he loves teaching evangelism and church planting as an adjunct professor at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas.
Other passions of his include SCUBA diving in warm blue water, Krispy Kremes, and board games with family and friends. He also has a weakness for golf.
Roger is the author of three books, Meet The Goodpeople: Wesley’s 7 Ways to Share Faith, Come Back: Returning to the Life You Were Made For, and Come Back Participant Guide, all through Abingdon Press.
Now for the best part. Roger is married to Leanne Klein Ross, and they live Bloomington, Illinois. God has blessed them with two adult children, a son-in-law, several tropical fish, and one adorable granddog.
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