If we’re all honest, there are times during the Christmas season when we end up feeling overwhelmed or obligated, weary or worn-out, hurried or hurting, lonely or lost.
If that’s you, don’t feel ashamed. Rejoice. Because Christmas came for you. Christmas came to embrace you where you are. And Christmas came to heal you there, raise you up there and fill you with a Living Hope and Resurrection Life there. Christmas came to restore your true identity; to remind you Whose you are.
Christmas is Jesus. And Jesus came to reveal the Father’s love for you and renew you once again in the Spirit of sonship (daughtership)! The wonder of this Christmas is the joy of your Salvation found in the embrace of your Father’s arms!
For unto us a child is born – so that you, through His Son, would be God’s born-again child. Unto us a Son is given – so that you might receive, like a child, the Spirit of adoption and full acceptance…not the spirit of religious duty (Isaiah 9:6, Romans 8:15).
In the Gospel of Luke, even before the Lord was a fetus, He was releasing His Father’s longing for a family, not a company of servant-slaves. In what most would deem insignificant, a simple salutation-a moment of merriment and motherly love-became one of the first expressions of your Papa’s pleasure for you and how He relates to you under grace and in His Son.
After Mary believed what the angel told her, she arose and rushed off to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home. And when she greeted her cousin and Elizabeth heard it, the baby in her womb (John = God is a gracious giver!) leaped and was filled with the Holy Spirit! (See Luke 1:39-45).
And yet this greeting was not just a “Hello!” or a “How are you?” The word for salutation in the original Greek is the word aspasmos but its root word is aspazomai which is a blissful word meaning “to draw to one’s self”…with embracing and kissing!
God is always drawing you to Himself beloved; always affirming that because His Beloved Son Jesus gave up His place at His Father’s bosom to be born and die for you, you now have that place of intimacy with Him.
Just like Jesus shared in the parable of the prodigal, yet still in the bowels of His young mother, our Eternal and Everlasting Father was embracing His children with an ecstasy of tender affection in His heart welcoming them home!
No matter how despised or broken you feel, no matter how much shame or guilt you carry, no matter how deep the trouble you’re in, just turn your heart to the One who is already running straight at you.
This is the Daddy who is throwing Himself on you, lavishing His kisses on you with tears of joy, reinstating you and throwing you a party just because you came home to Him! Beloved, grace is being face to face with your Lord. Everything hindering you from looking directly into His eyes that are aflame with fiery love for you is under the blood of Jesus.
The salutations of Mary’s day took time. A journey would actually be slowed down and delayed for this connection with another. In the same way, choose to slow down now to draw near to your Abba.
Come as you are. Be embraced by the Prince of Peace. Let your Mighty God supply you with all you need. It’s never about your doing. It’s about simply believing in all He’s done and is doing for you! Just as in the still of the night Salvation broke through to light up the world in its darkness, in being still and turning to Him while resting in confident trust, He breaks through for you now!
Merry Christmas child of God!
Resting In His Love,
Annalee Reyes
Annalee,
You never disappoint. I absolutely love reading your blogs ❤️
Thank you for sharing!