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Advent Devotional for Sunday, December 20
• Luke 1:39-45
“In those days”—this passage begins just after we read about Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, that she is to bear God’s son into the world.
Can you imagine just what “those days” must have felt like for Mary? Probably more than a little hectic and stressful, not to mention all the crazy ways her body must have been changing in the early stages of her pregnancy. “In those days Mary set out and went with haste.” I can imagine her running to her relative Elizabeth’s house, hurrying, but not knowing why. Perhaps Mary was going in haste because she wanted reassurance from Elizabeth that what was happening to her body was normal, and that this message from an angel that told her she would be carrying God’s child was actually a good thing (even if not normal). Who knows why Mary went with haste, but we can relate to that sense of rush, particularly during the Christmas season. But what does Elizabeth tell Mary? “Blessed are you!” Mary was declared to be a blessing, and that part of that blessing came from believing “that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
As we hurry through our lives, I hope you can take a moment to still your body and to lift up your heart to God, to trust that the promises God has spoken will be fulfilled. In Advent, we prepare our hearts for Christ and for his coming again, and we put our trust in God that the promises of new life and peace on earth will be fulfilled, for it is in believing that this fulfillment will take place that we share in Mary’s blessing, and that we help give birth to Christ’s presence in the world.
Gracious God, still our anxious hearts. As we rush around during this holiday season, remind us that this is not all there is, that you will come again to bring to fulfillment the promises you have made most visibly in the Gift of Jesus Christ. Bless us as you did your servant Mary, helping us to believe that what you have spoken to us will come to fulfillment. Amen.
Carolyn Browning Helsel
Associate Professor of Homilitics
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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