This post is part of a series by Holley Gerth and myself entitled All Things Possible Christmas. You can read more about it here and visit Holley’s place tomorrow for the conclusion.
I imagine how the Christmas story would read if Mary and Joseph were two professionals with PhD’s on their walls rather than two poor teenagers.
We don’t know exactly what Mary was doing when Gabriel delivered the message that she would deliver the Son, but we can assume it wasn’t anything that would have made the Nazareth newspapers.
Joseph was sleeping when God sent an angel to explain the details of Mary’s pregnancy in a dream.
I imagine how the Christmas story would read if God chose Bethlehem celebrities – maybe the Taylor Swift or Brad Pitt of their day – to first hear the news of Jesus’ birth. Instead, He chose shepherds tending flocks in fields, ordinary folks doing ordinary business.
With one hand, God reaches down from heaven and pulls extraordinary from the ordinary. And with the other He tosses up one illuminating star that leads kings to a stable.
From the moment of Jesus’ conception, God turned the ways of the world upside down. He brings the small to big places and takes the big to small places.
From the moment of Jesus’ conception, God made His name Emmanuel – God with us – very real.
Every year Emmanuel means something different. Life peels back more layers and we’re left standing raw until they heal. But God coming down to this gritty, dusty, land of the dying makes every difference in our hope for living. He is with us. He is in us. He is here. ~Emily P. Freeman
Emmanuel means inn doors of the heart aren’t slammed shut, but opened wide with welcome.
Emmanuel means miracles happen in the quiet of our ordinary days.
Emmanuel means our souls have worth.
Emmanuel means all things are possible.
But sometimes I forget all this, so I need reminding in my heart and home. Today, I am giving away two favorite things that do just that. I adore this pendant necklace from Lisa Leonard! If you win, you may choose this “He calls the stars by name” necklace or another single piece from Lisa’s faith collection at DaySpring. Not only are they swoony-pretty, but they match everything and are made of pewter. So lovely! {And just FYI~all Lisa’s jewelry is now 25% off at DaySpring.}
{photos from be small studios}
And have you met the lovely Annie Barnett of be small studios? Not only is Annie a beautiful soul herself, but her clean, classic, and bit-of-whimsy artwork is just glorious. {Annie also designed the picture above for this Christmas series!} If you win, you may choose any one of the Christmas prints above or another from her darling line.
To enter, all you have to do is like both Holley’s facebook page and my own in the handy Rafflecopter tool at the end of the post. By doing so you will automatically be entered to win both items. If you have already “liked” our pages, you will still be allowed to enter the giveaway, just follow the prompts in Rafflecopter. You will need to be signed into your Facebook account for it to work. One winner will be chosen for both prizes.
Lovely, Kristen. Reminds me of the Bible verse I’m memorizing this week for Advent, 1 Jn 4.16-19: “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him. By this, we are perfected in love, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.” Emmanuel indeed!!
A glorious reminder, Sonika. Thank you!
You would has worth.
As my parents are fighting as tearing me down this is enough to ease the heartache today.
Thank you, so very much!
DV-NMV
I’m so sorry for your heartache, Nicki. You are valued and so loved ~ may you feel it in your heart of hearts today and always.
That whole extraordinary-from-ordinary thing about God just floors me. Every time.
I’m glad you’re doing this series. Just lovely.
Oh, me too Jennifer! It’s grand and humbling all at the same time.
My take away from your beautiful post is that “Emmanuel means all things are possible” – that He is with us, makes all things possible, yes! The hope that things beyond my reach are possible with God stirs my heart so many times and keeps me praying when I feel like giving up.
All that you wrote here? Yes, that’s it exactly. Thank you for your wisdom, Kathy.
Love the little wee bird. Christmas is the most beautiful time of the year. It’s a time when JESUS …. HE ….. comes to us in our hearts and minds and spirit in a very special way. We just have to listen very carefully and pay attention and the eyes and the ears of our hearts will be open to HIS appearing. Lovely pictures by the way.
Oh, Kristen. When I offered the print, I had no idea how deeply these words would speak to me. Thank you for this, truly.
Thank you *so* much for your beauty in art and words, Annie! I adore you.
I have met Annie Barnett, she is indeed lovely!! I love this necklace, too. I just got the “Wonderfully Made”. It was a tough choice. How wonderful it would be to have both. 🙂 Such beautiful writing, too. Thank you for all of it.
Kristen, I just needed this reminder that He truly is Emmanuel, God with us. i think that I remember this in good and bad times but those ordinary and mundane times, I tend to forget. He is very real and very much wanting to perform the impossible in those in between spaces of our lives. I’m learning to expect Him there.
Thank you Holley you always get my day started with just want I need to read!!!
Just make it through today! Confessing God’s word to Him in prayer is a powerful tool for helping us ask for things that are in His will without getting sidetracked with our own Desires. ” Confess” means to acknowledge by way of revelation to own or admit as true”. When we bring our thoughts and words into line with the truths that the Lord has spoken, we’re filling our prayers with power!!!
Oh, goodness. I’m behind again. Catching up on your lovely words and feeling a tug in my heart for the way this beautiful speaks to the deep places inside.
What a gracious comment. Thank you, Laura!