I want to wish my
friends a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year. I haven’t posted anything here on Window
Reflections in a very long time. I’ve
been thinking. This Christmas has been
very different for us. We actually went
on a two week vacation right in the middle of Advent season! Never did that before! Best thing I’ve done in years! You know why?
We were not as busy doing
Christmas so I had much more time to reflect on Christmas and what it means to
me. This post is the collection of
thoughts the Lord brought to my mind this Advent and I just wanted to share
them with you. I hope the Lord opens
your heart to see the same thing he has shown me this year. Merry Christmas!
In reflecting on
the Christmas story this season I have been amazed at the frequency with which
we encounter the working of the Holy Spirit.
No, he is not mentioned in every instance, but there is no other
explanation for the actions of the people in the story. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit is doing a
work in them. When Gabriel came to Mary
to announce her pending pregnancy she wondered how she could bear a child when
she was still a virgin. Gabriel told
her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” (Luke 1:35). Then her response to Gabriel’s words can
only be explained by the working of the Holy Spirit in her heart. She said, “Behold,
I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke
1:38). She is receptive and appears
to be completely at peace with the amazing news.
When Joseph
learned that Mary was expecting he did not believe that it was a work of God
and he came to a resolution; he was going to divorce her quietly in order to
spare her the shame of public humiliation.
He came to a resolution! It was not merely an inclination or a feeling. He was resolved! Then he had a dream in which an angel came to
him and told him to take Mary as his wife because she really was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. When he woke
up, not a few days or a week later, he did exactly what he had resolved not
to do; he took Mary to wife. How can
such a dramatic change take place in an embarrassed man’s life unless it is the
Holy Spirit at work?
The now-famous
shepherds also heard from an angel about the birth of the Savior. They obeyed the words of the angel, went to
Bethlehem, found the Christ child, and turned into evangelists! “And
when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told the concerning
this child. And all who heard it
wondered at what the shepherds told them” (Luke 2:17, 18). It is almost impossible to understand
such a transformation apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in the shepherds!
We come to Simeon in Luke
2:25ff. Luke describes him as being “righteous and devout, waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25). The ancient Jewish writings identify
Simeon as a great scholar and theologian.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin and the head of a Jewish school. This Simeon is known as the father of the
great scholar, Gamaliel, under whom Paul studied. The writings also say that late in life he
was removed from both the Sanhedrin and the academy because he did not adhere
to the common view that the Messiah was going to establish merely an earthly
kingdom based on the restoration of Israel.
He was banished and his name was erased from the records. Yet Luke says the Holy Spirit was upon him
and had revealed to him that he would not die before he saw the Lord’s anointed
one (Luke 2:26). So we see the Holy
Spirit working in the heart of Simeon.
And on this very day when we meet him he is in intimate communication with
the Holy Spirit. “And he came in the Spirit into the temple” (Luke 2:27). What does that actually mean? Very simply, Simeon was living so closely to
God that when the Spirit urged him to go up to the temple, he did! Next, the Spirit pointed out the young couple
bringing their newborn son into the temple for his presentation. The Spirit told him that this infant was the
Lord’s Christ! The work of the Holy
Spirit is everywhere in Simeon’s life!
But there is more! This old man approached Joseph and Mary and
took Jesus into his own arms! How does
an old man take a baby from his parents?
Was he very well-known? Did they
recognize him? Was he still wearing
priestly garb at this point in his life?
Or did the Holy Spirit give Joseph and Mary a sense of assurance that he
was working through this old man? It
seems unlikely that a mother would have allowed this to happen unless the Holy
Spirit had given her confidence in him.
Simeon took Jesus in his arms and began to pray (see Luke 2:29-32). The content of Simeon’s prayer amazed Joseph
and Mary! They knew who Jesus was and the shepherds knew and maybe a few
other folks in Bethlehem knew; but how did this old man know about Jesus? It could only
be the revelation of the Holy Spirit!
So we see the Holy Spirit at work
throughout the Christmas story. It is as
if he is going here and there and revealing God and his message all over the
place. The very words of the story seem
to have a weight and gravitas about them that tell us that this is a very important
moment and God is saying something most significant.
