I thought I might do a little something, this year, that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I’m going to take the story of Jesus’s birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go…
When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord… ~ Luke 2:22 NIV
Can you imagine how Joseph and Mary must have felt as they were taking Jesus to Jerusalem? This was something every couple with a firstborn son was required by law to do, but this Son…they were taking Him to present Him to His actual, biological Father. No one, before (or after), had ever been in that position.
I would think that, after being chosen by God to carry His most precious and important gift to the world, Mary would’ve have been kind of excited to present that gift back to God. She had done her part to keep Jesus safe and healthy. She had endured all the hardship to bring Him into the world, and now she would lay Him at the Temple altar to delight His Father.
What are we giving back this Christmas? What part of ourselves do we hold dear, that needs to be released back into the hands that gave it in the first place?
Consider wrapping it up in love and placing it on the altar. Then, watch His face shine with delight.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~ Matthew 6:21 ESV