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43: Christmas Reflection Day 4 - Sharing
179 Plays3 years ago
How many times have you let Christmas come and go without reflecting on what actually happened that first Christmas long ago? It’s a story of wonder AND it's a story that causes us to wonder. Each day of the week before Christmas, these 5 minute daily reflections from Laura Fleetwood will transport you to the time of Jesus’ birth and help you reflect on the miracle that happened in your midst.
We were never meant to go through life alone and neither was Mary. Scripture: Luke 1: 39-45
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Transcript
Challenging Perceptions of Christianity
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The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members-only mindset.
Meet the Host: Jill Devine
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This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
00:00:24
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Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith.
Podcast's Mission: Authentic Faith Conversations
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The Normal Goes Along Way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation.
The Annunciation: Gabriel's Message to Mary
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secrets and sisterhood. Yesterday we heard the words that the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary to inform her that she would be conceiving the Son of God and carrying Him and that He would come to rule on this earth through her.
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Well, also in that message that Gabriel gave to Mary, he said this. He said, even Elizabeth, your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who had said to be barren is in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God.
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So Gabriel is reminding Mary that this may seem impossible, but it's not. Look what he's just done in her relative Elizabeth and her life. And so what does Mary do? Luke says, at that time Mary got ready.
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and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zachariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.
Mary and Elizabeth: A Divine Encounter
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When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
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As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." I love that Luke included this visit between Mary and Elizabeth in the story of the birth of Jesus because it shows their humanity. Mary and Elizabeth were just women, women like me, women like
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your wife, like your sister, like your mom. And yet they had been given these extraordinary gifts and they wanted to share those gifts with someone. Elizabeth had kept her pregnancy a secret.
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Mary was probably still overwhelmed and overcome by this news that she was now expecting a child, even though she was a virgin. And then this baby boy would be God's son. And so what does she do? She wants to talk about it with someone, someone who she thinks will understand.
Reflecting on Mary and Elizabeth's Humanity
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And because Gabriel had told her that Elizabeth was experiencing this miracle in her own life, Mary feels comfortable, I would imagine, to go visit her and have someone to share with, to have someone to be real with, to have someone to say, can you believe this is happening? Can you believe that God has chosen us to bring these promises to
The Power of Sisterhood and Sharing
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life?
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I just would have loved to hear more of their conversation, to hear them be honest about their fears and their questions, because of course they had them. Remember what we're studying as we journey through this season of Christmas. We're looking at the wonder, the awe, and the wonder, the questions.
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So put yourself in Mary and Elizabeth's shoes. What do you think that conversation would have looked like? What do you think they shared with each other? What do you think God
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wants to do in your life and who do you have that you can share His goodness with? This visit between Mary and Elizabeth is a picture of sisterhood, of brotherhood, of the special relationship we can have with people who also are believers in God and who have Jesus in their hearts and in their souls.
Encouragement to Share and Reflect
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is a special kind of relationship that requires trust and requires that we can be honest and vulnerable with each other about our fears, about our joys, about our pain, and about all of the things that God is up to.
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in our lives and Mary and Elizabeth just paint this beautiful picture for me and I am praying that as you ponder this journey and as you ponder what this visit must have looked like and
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that the Holy Spirit would stir up in you a person or some people in your own life that perhaps it's time for you to have an open and honest conversation with for you to share some secrets with that you haven't been letting into the light because God's people are all about community and he wants
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His love to be shown through you and through your relationships with others. So think about Mary and Elizabeth today. Think about how Mary ran to be with her relative who could understand and think about what you're struggling with and ask God to show you a person that you could run to who might understand. Be still.