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Key Bible Verse: "The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us')" (Isaiah 7:14). Bonus Reading: Isaiah 7:1-5

Among the most familiar Christmas texts is [today's Key Bible Verse.] Less familiar is its context. Isaiah has been pleading with King Ahaz to put his trust in God's promise to Judah rather than in alliances with strong military powers like Syria. "If you want God to protect you, learn to believe what he says," Isaiah warns Ahaz. Then the prophet tells the fearful king that God's going to give him a baby as a sign. Isn't that just like God, Ahaz must have thought. What I need, with Assyria breathing down my neck, is a good army, not a baby!

This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn't need, which transform us into people we don't necessarily want to be. With our advanced degrees, material comforts, and self-fulfillment techniques, we assume that religion is about giving a little of our power to confirm to ourselves that we're indeed as self-sufficient as we claim.

Then this stranger comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as empty-handed recipients of a gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby.

—William Willimon in Christian Century

My Response: Does my own self-sufficiency make me reluctant to accept God's gracious gift?

Thought to Apply: The ox and the ass understood more of the first Christmas than the high priests in Jerusalem. It is the same today.—Thomas Merton (monastic writer)

Adapted from Christian Century (12/21/88) by permission

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, help me to get past all the "forms" of Christmas to the essence of your staggering gift.

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