Merry Christmas! 

After today, The Up Devotional is going on pause until January 3rd, but I just wanted to send you one last message on Christmas morning. 

Christ is born! Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah—God’s chosen king and representative on the earth. But something his followers came to learn was that Jesus was more than a representative; he was God himself in human form! Tim Keller says: “When we look at Jesus we are looking at the glory of God through the filter of human nature.”*

John’s Gospel famously puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14).

This Christmas I invite you to consider something that is sometimes missed in the Christmas story. Here it is: With God all things are possible.

Those are, of course, Jesus’ own words from Matthew 19:26. He was teaching his disciples that even a rich person could enter God’s kingdom. But that truth is stated in other situations too. In Luke 1:37 the angel Gabriel told Mary that nothing is impossible with God. Jeremiah 32:17 reminds us that nothing is too hard for God. Psalm 145:3 tells us that no one can fathom God’s greatness. And Genesis 18:14 asks a question that we already know the answer to: “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” 

No. No, it isn’t. 

So yes, with God all things are possible. 

Just look at the nativity story itself. A young nobody (Mary) from a backwater village is favoured by God? A virgin gives birth? The Messiah is born in a feed-trough for animals? 

Friends, when God’s landing pad on earth is a manger, expect the unexpected. 

Over time we get cynical. We start to expect the expected. We waiver and start to think that with God only some things are possible.

But at Christmas, and with the enfleshment of God himself in a manger, the Lord of surprises lifts our eyes once again to his horizon of possibility.

Where are you right now? In your apartment, car, house, or on a walk? Wherever you happen to be, imagine Jesus speaking these words to you as one year comes to a close and a new one prepares to begin:

With God all things are possible. 

Take Jesus’ words to heart as you prepare for the next twelve months of your life.

Merry Christ-mas! 

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Notes:

–Note: The Up Devotional will go on pause after today (December 25) to return on January 3, 2024 (I’m taking some holidays). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

–*Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God (New York: Dutton, 2014), 49.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.