Isn’t there something special about Christmas? The other day, Teresa and I were out shopping and saw a children’s book entitled, “Pete The Cat Saves Christmas.” Now I know this is a children’s book, yet isn’t it kind of ironic, that we can mention that Christmas was saved when the purpose of Christmas is truly Christ coming to save us? The Wonder of Christmas is that Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, was born to save us from our sins. He broke into our “messy” lives Coffering hope, joy, love, and peace through His saving grace.

If we choose to put our messy lives into His Holy hands, we can have confidence based on all that is written about Jesus in the Bible that He specializes in dealing with our mess in such a way that He knows how to make something new beautiful, and clean. Jesus is all about giving people a fresh start in life when they trust Him.

Perhaps this Christmas, you just need a fresh start with Jesus. Maybe you need to go back to where it began in the Christmas story and remember that innocence in the form of a baby stepped into a mess to save us from the mess of our lives in this world.

Read that part about the messy shepherds being invited into that messy little manger to worship divinity in human flesh once more. Luke 2:16-19 reminds us of this truth concerning the shepherds:

“And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:16-19

What a delivery; what a special delivery! Mary delivered the Savior of the world, who would in turn, deliver us from our sins in time. Jesus would rescue us from the mess we made of things and the mess we made of our lives. Mary had a special delivery of the Son of God who would grow up to make way for a special delivery from the sin of the world that separates people from God, and the eternal mess all of humanity was headed toward before He arrived.

In time Jesus would grow into a mature man and teach His disciples how to pray. At the end of that prayer that has come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prays, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…” Matthew 6:13 Jesus is helping us know how to pray when trying to navigate the mess around our lives.

Deliver us from our mess, Lord Jesus. That is what the special delivery of the Messiah in the manger would lead to in time. Yes, the wonder of Christmas is about the special delivery that would one day lead to our special delivery when Jesus would grow up from the baby born in Bethlehem into a man who lived a perfect life and went all the way from the manger to the cross to deliver us from the mess of our sin.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Pastor Greg & Teresa