Luke 2
Rebecca Lightfoot
God reveals Himself through every aspect of Creation/every aspect of Life...every aspect of my life!(Psalm18:1-4,”The heavens declare the glory of God; The skies proclaim the work of his hands.Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.Their voice goes out into all the earth,their words to the ends of the world.”;Romans1:20,”For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”).God takes the responsibility for revealing Himself and His Mercy & Grace to all people...every person ever born and yet to be born.God has created absolutely everything to reveal His Glory to us,& sovereignly leverages every moment of history to reveal Himself to us!He does ALL of THIS,& then leaves THE DECISION up to us-what we will do with the trails of evidence He puts n our life.The Lord even did this with Joseph & Mary,the earthly parents of Jesus!When Jesus is born a “great company of the heavenly hosts” appear to some shepherds to tell them about not only the birth of Jesus but also about WHO Jesus is!(Luke2:8-20).These shepherds find Jesus,& tell Mary& Joseph everything the heavenly hosts had told them about Jesus.Mary is overwhelmed with “everything” she hears,& knows that she needs to “treasure up all these things and ponders them in her heart”(Luke2:19).The awesome information shared w her about the baby Jesus by the shepherds is so overwhelming w things she probably cannot fathom yet as she is changing diapers and feeding the baby Jesus.But something in her realizes that she cannot let what she has heard slip from her life...so she “treasures them up”.This treasuring up must have been a fairly regular thing for Mary & Joseph.They bring Jesus to b circumcised...& Simeon unpacks what the Holy Spirit had shared with him about Jesus...Joseph & Mary “marvel at what was said about him”(marvel = to be filled with wonder, admiration, or astonishment, as at something surprising or extraordinary).Joseph & Mary realized the value of what they were told,but not yet the significance!Still,they captured these things n their hearts&minds...they treasured them up.At the end of Luke2,Jesus stays behind at the temple “in his Father’s house”.Joseph & Mary are surely n panic mode as they go back to find Jesus.When they find the boy Jesus,he says to them,”Why were you searching for me...Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house.”(Luke2:49).Joseph & Mary “did not yet understand what he was saying to them.”)Luke2:50.BUT! Mary “treasured all these things in her heart.”(Luke2:51).God created absolutely everything for the purpose of revealing Himself/His Glory to us,&has weaved His Mercy & Grace into every moment of history,while also revealing evil and its very nature.What we “do” with all of this information is up to us.Satan has a ploy to bend our minds & hearts away from TRUTH,because TRUTH of all things reveals God’s Glory/Grace/Mercy...and His Awesome Love to us.Satan will twist&bend TRUTH & the ways that God has personally intervened in our lives...,so we will utterly discount&deny the Love of God and His Mercy&Grace.This is why we must rightly treasure up God’s Word in our lives,& treasure up all He has done for us and shown to us personally!If not,we may never find the Overwhelming Awesome JOY of knowing WHO Jesus is,& WHAT he has done for us.Dear Lord Jesus,I have let so much of what you have done n my life and shown me personally,escape from my heart&mind.Please restore these into my life & make their significance have the impact in my life...so that I may know more fully Your love for me,& Your Ways that I should I should b following in every day I live.