A few years back, my mother-in-law showed me pictures she took of a first-century manger in Israel. Surprisingly, they were large and carved out of stone. These mangers were meant to hold water or food for animals, not tiny newborn babies. And yet this was where Jesus’s humble life began—tightly wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in stone.
These are the intricacies and details in the physician Luke’s Gospel: We see a young Mary who wrapped Jesus “tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them” (Luke 2:7). When the angel told the shepherds to look for the Messiah, he said, “This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). And in Luke 23, after Jesus died on the cross, they took His body down and “wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed” (Luke 23:53). There was the Redeemer, wrapped in cloth, laying in stone, where no one had ever been placed.
In Scripture, God is present in all of human history as He cares for each and every detail. Jesus’s time on earth ended the same way it began, wrapped in cloth, laying in stone—a manger and a tomb, two unlikely places for God’s begotten Son.
Laying in that stable manger in the city of David over two thousand years ago, the Lamb of God was “born that man no more may die.” He was born to be sacrificed so that even the vilest of sinners could receive adoption as children of God, if they would repent and put their trust in Him. And if “He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him grant us everything?” (Romans 8:32).
When life doesn’t make sense or things seem random, remember there are no “oops” with God. The nativity story in Luke 2 reminds us that every detail of human history is under God’s sovereign care for our good and His glory. Even when we can’t see the full picture, we can trace His handiwork and trust His heart for us—fulfilled in the person of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.
As we celebrate Christ’s birth today, let’s join the shepherds, “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told” (Luke 2:20). Merry Christmas!
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32 thoughts on "Christmas Day: The Savior of the World Has Come"
Glory to God in the highest ❤️
Praise God for He knows all!
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If He could do that for us. What won’t He do…
Thank you God for sending your son as a baby, who will sacrifice himself for us to take our sins away. Amen.
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Such a glorious story preserved for us in God’s Word. I’ve been enjoying listening to Handel’s Messiah these last few days at home. Can you imagine the glory and power of the heavenly hosts singing GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST for the first time? Woah!!!! Merry Christmas to all!! Keep drawing in to God’s nearness today ❤️
Merry Christmas ladies!
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day, but if not, know you are not alone ❤️
Merry Christmas everyone. May god bless you and keep you ❤️
Christmas this year is hitting my heart in a new and fresh way as I’m currently expecting a baby boy. I am just so in awe of God’s plan to send the world’s savior through a tiny, humble, needy baby. I just imagine how Mary felt as she “treasured up all these things in her heart” and pondered them and can’t help but realize to her on a new level this year. So much hope, life, peace, and wonder at who her baby boy would become. Thank you Father that your plan was good and purposeful from the very start and you chose that mama for that purpose at that perfect time. Thank you thank you thank you Jesus, for humbly submitting to the will of the Father so we may never see death ❤️ amen!
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@RHONDA J: it’s great that your husband is so well acquainted with the novel/performance. I wonder how the movie would turn out. Excited! My Xmas was quiet since my husband worked Xmas Eve and Day. I was so bored that I cleaned lol. I was indeed working on my contentment when I cleaned. Thankful that he has a job. And tonight I am watching “It’s the wonderful life”. This movie blesses my heart every time. Tonight as I am watching, I wonder how many times I could have come sooooo close to a breakthrough, and burned out like George Bailey, lost hope, and an angel was sent to encourage me from up above. His life was tough, full of struggles, yet it’s titled – it’s a wonderful life. If God didn’t find me, where would I be? A course of a different life would be played out, a different me, a different scenario? Yet God watches our lives from up above, faithful and merciful to rescue us at every turn. This movie always encourages me to not give up, for the cloud of witnesses are watching, and God Himself. We are not alone. Our lives are wonderful, sisters.
I am asking for prayers again for my friend Lisa and her husband, who have been struggling on their new mission in the Bay area. To top off the turmoil, her dad got into a car accident before Xmas Eve in Canada, he got tboned. She and her husband scrambled to fly back. The devil does not want her in San Francisco ministering to the lost (homeless and gender confused). She is very discouraged, worn out, and I sense she might not want to return. Would appreciate your prayers over them and their family for restoration for strength, courage, and provision. May God’s will be done. Thank you she’s.
Be blessed dear sisters ❤️.
Merry Christmas Shes! Praising the Lord and rejoicing in our Savior, Christ the King!
Praying for peace for each of you and your families. Love you all!
Merry Christmas, sweet sisters! Christ the Savior is born! ❤️
Thank you for helping me see the connections between His birth and His death, Beverly Berrus and also CEE GEE, MARIA BAER and SHAMRA HICKS.
I am sure that everyone had a blessed day.
RHONDA— Merry Christmas! My Christmas is going wonderful even though I started my morning with a painful bacon grease burn on top of my foot. Thank goodness I was wearing slippers, otherwise, my who foot would be burned. But I was determined not to let that ruin my day. Once I took a nap and cared for my foot, I continued to embrace the day with my family, had Christmas dinner and soon will be watching a Christmas movie. Hope yours was wonderful!
Shamra Hicks–Yes, yes, yes!
Christmas blessings to all! Praise to the Father!
Merry Christmas Churchmouse, Angie and all others we haven’t heard from in a while. We miss you and pray you are well.
Speaking of “The Best Ever Christmas Pageant” my husband was always in the theater production of it in his little town growing up and when we married we went and took our grandson! I had never heard of it until then! I think I must order the book and read @Mercy! What a thoughtful present from your hubby!
How is everyone’s Christmas going?! I would love to hear!
On that story the Christmas Pageant, years ago my church Sunday school performed it. Little did we know we had the perfect little lead, she was the star of the show and was a lot like the character. LOL This has brought back memories, members of the church talked about for a long time.
Just a note a lot of notes from sisters is on yesterday’s site as this was not up this morning.
Merry Christmas! The King is born!
Merry Christmas!
I’m so glad I checked back to see if the SRT devo had posted. Wonderful, Beverly!
Happy Christmas, Shes.
I never realized the correlation between how Jesus came into the world and how he “left” the world! I didn’t know the managers were off stone and not wood. The details God weaves together absolutely amazes me! We are unworthy, but God sees ALL of us as worthy enough to sacrifice His son for us to have a chance at life with Him in eternity. I can’t imagine sacrificing my son for all people, but that is the sovereignty of God and His love for us.
Merry Christmas
Beautiful read, BEVERLY BERRUS!!! Thank you!
Tony Evans’Study Bible has this note on Luke 2:12-
“The shepherds were responsible for making sure that newborn lambs had no defects since the sacrificial animals had to be without spot or wrinkle. So the shepherds would tightly wrap the lambs in cloth to keep them from becoming blemished and injuring themselves. This explains why Luke makes the point that Jesus was wrapped tightly in cloth, since at his birth he was the sinless Lamb of God whose substitutionary sacrifice would take away the sin of the entire world (see John 1:29; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 1:19-20; 1 John 2:2).”
MERRY CHRISTMAS SHES!
Through various readings today, specific aspects of the Nativity have come forth that I never really paid much attention to—- the first breath and Last breath of Jesus in human form, the cloth he was wrapped in the manger, and the the cloth he was wrapped when he was buried. The first cry when he was born and his last cry when Jesus felt the sins of the world in him. A perfect human, who would be slaughtered like a perfect lamb at the temple. The nativity truly has all the elements we see in the crucifixion. I cannot even begin to imagine Mary’s heart knowing all she knew. A momma knowing her baby would be the salvation of humankind. Thank you God, for your incredible love and for the ultimate gift you gave us. We praise you day and night for this love you have for us. Merry Christmas!
This same part touched my heart. Thank you for your prayers. Have a most wonderful Christmas!! Grateful for every one of you Shes.
Merry Christmas she’s from the cold Alberta Canada. May your heart be merry and bright.
“Like them, we get to do the difficult things God has called us to. We say yes to His will, even when we don’t understand” Amen Ginny. Mary and Joseph got to do the difficult things. May we have the grace to partake and overcome. Emmanuel- God with us, God with us! God and sinners reconciled. What more can we say to this besides erupting in praise and worship to Him whose compassion and mercy is too great for words? I got my early Christmas gift, I must share! the book “The best Christmas pageant ever” by Barbara Robinson, that Dallas (the Chosen director) was talking about, that this book made him and his wife cry so much to even go on (and I believe they are tough strong people), and now it’s being filmed in Winnipeg, Canada- one of the coldest places- such sacrifice and hard work. Any who, I searched for the book reviews, and other people said they cried hysterically (?!). That really challenged me to see if I would cry myself. I did not realize it was somewhat rare and none of the bookstores around me had it. But praise the Lord, that my husband made some phone calls, have it shipped and I got it early, and I read it, and it was so wonderful. When my husband called and asked the store about the book that made you cry, he was informed by the clerk that it’s in juvenile category (8-12 years old), my husband didn’t know that, lol, they both had a chuckle. Highly recommend this short read on how God’s love reaches far and deep toward the marginalized. I would read it to my little ones soon on this break.
@MICHELLE PATIRE: prayers for your family, and sin to be removed, may God send help for the chosen “Ezra” to rebuild the temple within your home.
@VICTORIA E: lovely to see you, prayers for your family and sweet Elijah. Hope your heater got fixed and running.
@SEEKING UNDERSTANDING: I had similar questions as you too. What’s so good in this story is that God did not send Jesus alone to this earth without sending John the Baptist first to pave the way. God sent help and alliance always. So sometimes in our ministry/work for God, may we ask, who is our John? There is one. And even going through pregnancy and delivery, Elizabeth and Mary had one another to lean on, may we find our Elizabeth. And one of the unasked questions was, if I may add on to your list of questions instead of answering lol, while Herod seeked high and low to kill all male babies aged 2 and under, how did Elizabeth escape such decree and running to where in her old age, hiding baby John, enduring such stress, during this massacre? Mysteries. Now we see in part, we understand in part. BUT one day. All will be revealed.
@SEARCHING: joining your prayer list to pray for our sisters, thank you!
@KELLY (NEO): “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!” one of my fave verses too. Thank you for praying over my friend Lisa & husband. Yes you are right, they are in a bad spiritual battle since the moment they stepped into the SF area, even resistance from some “Pharisees” in the church they were sent to help.
Thank you CEE GEE and RHONDA J for the Chosen recommendations. I will check that out, hopefully Youtube has it.
Be blessed dear sisters.
When life doesn’t make sense or things seem random, remember there are no “oops” with God. The nativity story in Luke 2 reminds us that every detail of human history is under God’s sovereign care for our good and His glory. Even when we can’t see the full picture, we can trace His handiwork and trust His heart for us—fulfilled in the person of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.
I LOVE this ^^^^ SO much! What a great reminder!
Thinking of you all and what you might be doing and feeling today! Especially those of you with losses, those of you that find yourself in a different caregiver role this year, and those that are facing illnesses…You are lifted up in prayer.