On Labor Day, my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby! Just a few days before Christmas, we found out that that little baby was going to be a baby boy. We are so thrilled! Finding out a few days before Christmas that the little Nugget growing inside of me was actually a sweet baby boy made me listen to and think about the Christmas story from a different perspective. From the minute my husband and I found out that I was pregnant, we have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet boy. Every week we count down the weeks, and we have some type of conversation of how excited we are to meet our baby pretty much every day. It made me wonder if Mary did similar things as she awaited the birth of her Son. Then, it led me to another thought. Yes, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my sweet baby boy, and I am sure Mary anxiously awaited the arrival of Jesus as He grew in her womb, but Jesus was waited on for MUCH longer than just the 9 months He was growing in Mary’s womb.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, & the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This was written hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth. There are tons of more prophecies just like this one in the Old Testament. Even back in Genesis, God promises a Savior, a way of redemption. So for much longer than 9 months, for hundreds and hundreds of years actually, people anxiously awaited the arrival of the Messiah, the One who would redeem the people from their sins. Wow. It makes the 9 months I have to wait to meet my baby seem like nothing. I cannot imagine how it felt to be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the One who would save me from my sins and redeem all people.
Praise the Lord for the Christmas story! When Jesus was born, the wait was over. Finally, the long promised Savior who would save the world from their sins had arrived! What does that mean for us now, though? It means we don’t have to wait. We don’t have to wait for a long promised Savior, because He has already come. Jesus was born, lived a perfect life, and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins that we could not pay. 3 days later, Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death. Because of this great sacrifice, we can have eternal life if we accept Jesus as our Savior. We do not have to wait for redemption. We just have to accept the salvation and redemption already freely available to us.
With all of that said, I cannot believe that tomorrow is our last day of 2013. There is so much talk of New Year’s Resolutions right now, and to be honest, I’m not one to make resolutions. So, here’s my New Year’s Resolution challenge to you: If you don’t know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, change that. We don’t have to wait for salvation any more. Because of the Christmas story, salvation is HERE! Grasp hold of the free gift of eternal life that Jesus offers. Please, please, please contact me about this if you would like!
For those of you who know Jesus as your Savior, let’s stop acting like we are waiting. For whatever, reason we Christians sometimes live life afraid of being bold for Christ or truly following Him as passionately as we should. We need to stop living like we have no hope and start living like we have the best hope of all! We do not have to anxiously await the arrival of salvation. Salvation has come, and we need to live like it! We have hope! We have life! Let’s share that with others in 2014, and let’s be bold for Christ and follow Him more passionately than we ever have before!
Merry (late) Christmas and Happy (early) New Year! Praise the Lord that the anxiously awaited has ended and that Salvation has come!
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