The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Over the house of Jacob and over ALL that are called by His Name (Christians).

I had an interesting? strange? experience when I was about 12-13. At the time we lived in Germany. One night, I remember waking up and seeing the (illuminated) shape of Mary, her hands folded in prayer, with a rosary hanging from her hands. I literally froze! I couldn’t move. The silhouette did not move and there was total silence in the room. At one point (when it seemed like the soft glow was waning), I got up, ran to our Mom’s bedroom and woke her up. I was shaking and I had trouble formulating words. Eventually, my mom got up and came into our room. I don’t remember if there was some object that looked like it could have been the statue of Mary or if there was nothing there to begin with. Sometimes I think about that event, and I wonder why I was so afraid? If it was a super-natural experience – wouldn’t I have felt peace? The same if it wasn’t super-natural, just a shadow of something? It seemed real, though and as I write this, I can still see in my mind what I saw then.

Knowing God’s Word to some degree, I do not pray to Mary or worship her in any way. Gabriel’s words to Mary started out with: “Greetings favorite one, the Lord is with you! – and – Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God!”

For Mary to accept Gabriel’s message and to not reject it out of fear from the social consequences of being with child, though she was not yet married, tells me that she was courageous and had a strong faith, yet wasn’t afraid to ask questions when she didn’t understand something. For God to pick her over all the woman in Judea says a lot about how God saw her. She is deserving of honor.

Talking about honoring mothers, I wish I had honored my Mother while she was still with us. For some reason I could not stand being around her, though she worked 2 sometimes 3 jobs to put a roof over our heads and feed us. I always felt that she should have stayed together with our dad. Though, I never really knew the whole story of their divorce. Now, I can only honor her in my memory.

Anyway … Whether you believe that Christmas is a pagan holiday, that Christmas trees are a pagan symbol, etc.

Christians have determined to celebrate that

• God sent His only begotten Son to become one of us
• to bring salvation to all mankind
• through His death on the cross
• and His resurrection on the third day on Christmas!

That’s the way I look at this. We should prepare our hearts to truly celebrate what God has done – for He so loved the world …

And Grace upon Grace

Have A Blessed Day!