December 1, 2024 Devo

December 1st, 2024

“It’s All About Jesus!”
The Birth of Jesus – The Prophecies
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! – Isaiah 7:14a (NLT)
“The Visited Planet”

Prophecies almost always had two components. One had to do with what God was doing THEN—the day and time in which it was written. In this case, it was about assuring His people that God was working in their midst and would soon raise up someone whom He would have His hand upon. As the people of God entered this dark time where they would be sent into exile, they would desperately need words of hope to hang onto.
But the second component of prophecies is a foreshadowing of what God will do later—specifically as it relates to the coming Messiah, Jesus. Matthew points out that Mary fulfilled the “virgin” mentioned in the passage. The people of God were again in need of hope. It had been 400 years since they had heard from God. Now God would show Himself among them as never before.
The virgin birth was a stamp of the Divine. God had raised up many great men through the centuries, but none could compare to Jesus. Just as in the Garden of Eden when God breathed into Adam and Eve the breath of life, so, too, God breathed into Mary. His Spirit joined with her to form a child. Though Joseph would be His earthly caretaker, God alone would be His Father. It was a miracle unlike anything the world had ever seen.
The virgin birth also reminds us of how precious this world is to God. In C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy, God’s created beings on other planets refer to Earth with a sense of awe. It was the “visited” planet. Unlike any of their planets, Earth was the only place where the Creator Himself came to be born and live among His creation. That made this world someplace SPECIAL. And it is. Unique and precious.
As we begin to celebrate this Christmas season, I want you to camp on that thought today. Miraculous. That’s how God can work in your life today. Special—that’s who you are to God. Not just another part of His creation, but the Crown of His creation. The virgin birth reminds us that God has not given up on us and that He is willing to go to great lengths and move in incredible ways to demonstrate His commitment to us. We still are the “visited” planet. May God visit YOU in a special way during this season of Christmas. That’s God’s Word for you today.