Mary and Joseph and their baby boy

This month, we are waiting for things. We wait for the year to end, we wait for the holiday break from school to come, we wait to open gifts that appear on December 25. For those who know Jesus, this is a special time of waiting, because we use this as a time of remembering the thousands of years that God's people waited for God to fulfill His promise to send a Savior to save them.

Isaiah told the people of Israel in the 8th century BC, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (meaning "God with us"). But it would be several hundred more years before Immanuel would arrive.

A young woman named Mary was surprised when she was told that she would be the one to carry this baby in her womb. But she responded that she was the Lord's servant and that it should be as the angel said. And Joseph, her fiancée (the man she was engaged to marry), was also told that the baby that Mary carried would be the one to save people from their sin. He knew that this baby was a special gift to the world.

So even though this is a familiar story to many of us, it is a story that we should think about--that God sent his son Jesus to be born as a baby at this particular time and in that particular place. God knew how to bring about how we could be reconciled to Him and that was only possible by sending His Son. Praise Him for that wonderful gift! With love! Mrs. Bess