The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
It is the beginning of Advent, and I need to catch my breath already. The social pressure to capitalize on each moment of the holiday season creeps in around every corner. And when marketers, movies, and family members quiet for even a moment, my mind creates its own frantic pressures to make magic happen. All in search of something entirely out of our control: “Christmas cheer,” whatever that means.
Sincere Christians make it a doubly hard task because on top of the social pressure, we feel a spiritual pressure to create meaning behind all the festivities. We need the perfect holidays not only for our family, but for our faith.
The bad news is this: that feeling you are looking for cannot be created, crafted, decorated, baked, or bought. Christmas cheer, if you can find it, is a cheap substitute for the joy, peace, and contentment you seek. What you are really looking for comes from God Himself. Not a gift from God; rather, His actual presence. Closeness to the Creator.
Does that sound like a tall order? Don’t just manifest Christmas cheer… meet GOD.
That might increase the pressure instead of relieving it, but here is the good news: the whole point of the Christmas story is that God made Himself available to you. Regardless of the state of your house, to-do list, finances, or holiday calendar, God came down from the heavenly places, took on human flesh just like yours so that He could look you in the eyes and be with you. Luke 1 shows us that God is not something to be found but some one to be received.
All I have to do is receive? Open the present, not find it, buy it, and wrap it? Sign me up! So how do we receive God?
Luke doesn’t tell us, exactly, but he does show us two very different examples of receiving God in Zechariah and Mary.
Zechariah seems like the kind of guy you expect to see God. Not only is he described as blameless and righteous, but he was born a priest, so it’s safe to say he was highly prepared for a divine encounter. He trained his whole life to go into the holy places and interact with God on behalf of the people. Not only that, but to go into the temple on the holiest day of the year, he would have had to go through a multi-day process of consecration of his body and soul in order to be ready to step into sacred space.
Prepared as he was— with pedigree and privilege, in the right place at the right time—he missed it. An angel of the Lord appears bringing miraculous news straight to Zechariah. But he doesn’t believe what he saw with his own eyes.
Mary, on the other hand, is a completely different story. The same angel, Gabriel, came to her, but we don’t know much about her or what meeting with Gabriel was like.
Did he show up in her house? On the way to the store? In prayer? Doing dishes? Luke tells us the exact place in the temple Gabriel stood to talk to Zechariah, but all we know about Mary’s divine encounter is that she is in Nazareth, which is about as far as you can get from the temple and the center of religious life. We might not know much about Mary, but as a poor, young girl, it’s safe to say meeting with God was not something she had been preparing for or working toward—He just showed up in the middle of it all.
And still, she was ready.
Mary listens to God and she believes what He says—more than that, she believes He is good.
We cannot fault Zechariah for his initial fear—the reason he was so prepared was because he knew that it was a dangerous thing for a mere human to meet with a holy God. One should not play fast and loose with divine encounters! What Gabriel does fault Zechariah for, however, is his unbelief.
The moral of this story is not that we should never prepare ourselves, our homes, or our calendars for God. After all, God did show up right where Zechariah should have expected him to. Rather, the moral of this story is that the most important preparation is not external, but internal: to ready our hearts to receive Him.
The difference between Mary and Zechariah is not a matter of to-do lists, but a matter of the heart. Zechariah has been praying and preparing for something for so long that he forgot to believe that God could do it. But when Gabriel shows up to Mary and says God is coming to be with His people, she takes Him at His word. Mary shows us that we receive God by believing that God is at work through and for His people.
As we deck the halls and wrap the gifts, light the candles, and sing our songs, we have a chance to imitate the faith of Mary. We can remember what we are celebrating: God is in the business of visiting His people. Sometimes God meets us right where we expect Him: in the church gathering, in a quiet moment of morning prayer, in a carefully planned Advent celebration. Sometimes, however, He shows up when we are doing the dishes. Running errands. Through a stranger’s words.
Will our hearts be ready to receive him?
"Regardless of the state of your house, to-do list, finances, or holiday calendar, God came down from the heavenly places, took on human flesh just like yours so that He could look you in the eyes and be with you. " I am not crying; it's just allergies...okay, I'm crying! This so makes my heart skip to the beat of advent! Come, Lord, Jesus, Come!
"she takes Him at His word" - such a beautiful, simple, and clarifying explanation of 'faith', taking God at His word.
lovely writing, thank you