Things that are Important for Christmas Luke 1-20
1. One of the things important for Christmas is Family
• Today’s story we see family is important to Joseph and Mary 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
2. Another important thing during Christmas is The Feeling of Christmas
In the field the Shepherds felt the glory which shone all around them.
• 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
• 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told. They heard and seen they felt something very special.
• Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. She felt something was definitely special about this child, this night, and this moment.
3. Yet, another important thing about Christmas is the Facts
• Consider the facts
• History has affirmed there was a census taken, ancient documents written by Josephus affirm there were two taken during Quirinius’s reign.
• 1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
• Historical fact is that Angels brought good news
• Historical Fact is that Jesus was born in a manger
• Historical fact is that born this day in the city of David is a savior
4. Another important thing about Christmas is the Flavor of Christmas the smell story of little girl
• You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
God’s Smell
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple’s new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs. "I don’t think she’s going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one" Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially ’raw’, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing.
As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain." Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before the rains came, her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
5. Another Important thing about Christmas is the Faith of Christmas I believe
• . I believe 9An angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks at night. .
• I believe the Angel of the Lord said, 10 "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people
• I believe,11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is ChristA the Lord
• I believe by Faith we to should proclaim 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
• I believe by Faith we should be so excited to go see this great event like the meager shepherds were” Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
• I believe by Faith that like Mary we to should treasure the events that happened in the story today and always, 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20
