Dec 05, 2025 Jesus: The Son of the Most High – Words of Grace Blog – December 5, 2025
The Christmas season is one of great anticipation. Children can’t wait for Christmas Day to arrive. They hope that time will speed up and shorten the days until they can rip open the presents under the tree and begin enjoying the toys that have been at the top of their wish lists. Adults often feel the opposite way about the hectic schedule of the season, and would give anything to just slow down and have a little more time to enjoy the fleeting moments with family and friends. We all carry different expectations, joys, fears, and sorrows this time of year.
Mary was an ordinary girl with what we can only assume were ordinary expectations for her life. She was living out the common traditions that her devout Jewish family had followed for hundreds of years. She had recently been betrothed to the local carpenter, Joseph, who himself was a faithful follower of Israel’s God. They would live a normal life in the secluded town of Nazareth and raise their children as followers of God from the tribe of David. Other than the prescribed trips to Jerusalem for Jewish holy days, life would be pretty normal. Those expectations were turned upside down when she received a visit from Gabriel and heard about God’s new plan for her young life. She would never be the same again.
This announcement that she would give birth to the Son of God was shocking and illogical. Her response to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34) is completely understandable. The angel reassures her that the Holy Spirit will perform this miracle because “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). This incident would likely remind her of the stories she heard in the synagogue of Sarah and Hannah and the other miraculous births that continued to show God’s steadfast love and faithfulness toward His chosen people. Now she would give birth to the promised King who would reign over an eternal kingdom. That’s a lot for a young teenager to take in.
Mary’s response is an example to us of what the phrase “by grace through faith” looks like in real life. God had been gracious to choose her for this unique role in salvation history, and she responded in faith. “Behold, I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). You and I do not play the same pivotal role that Mary did, but we are all confronted with opportunities to respond to God “by grace through faith” in our daily lives.
How is God asking you to respond in this same way during this season of life?
As we count down the days until Christmas arrives and empty the Advent calendars of their various treats, let’s take time to slow down and ponder, as Mary must have, how this amazing gift of the arrival of the Son of God in human flesh would change the world and the trajectory of our own lives.
– Jason Miller, Pastor of Children & Families