In Luke 2:33 we read, “And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.” That’s something to contemplate. His father and His mother, meaning Joseph and Mary, “were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.” What was so amazing to start with was that so much was being said about Him before He was even born.

We would like to know more about our children before they show up. We don’t have that right or that privilege. But these two ordinary Jewish young people—Mary, maybe around the age of 13 (that was pretty standard for marriage); and Joseph, also a young teenager, not in any sense extraordinary. We don’t know anything about their parents or grandparents. We know names because their genealogies are given, because they had to come from the line of David—Joseph’s genealogy’s in Matthew and Mary’s is in Luke. But we don’t know anything about their background. Doesn’t tell us anything about their education. Doesn’t tell us anything about the meager accomplishments that their families might have achieved. They were too young to have achieved anything significant, as teenagers. And out of heaven come angelic visitors, and God speaks for the first time in four centuries. And it’s not Jerusalem, and it’s not the Temple, and it’s not the high priest He speaks to, and it’s not the Sanhedrin, and it’s not the Pharisees, and it’s not the rabbis. It’s a young boy and a young girl in an obscure place; but angels show up.

It’s impossible for us to comprehend the shock of this. No such thing had happened. As I said, God hadn’t sent a word from heaven in four centuries, and they start getting angelic information from heaven about this child that’s coming into their family. And the message is so thorough and so complete that the shocks get all the more elevated because it’s clear there’s never been a child like this, never. They aren’t yet married; they’re only betrothed. They haven’t come together; this is a virgin girl and her husband-to-be, a pure young man. They’re going to have a child whose entire life course and destiny is given to them before the child arrives; that’s rare.

It happened just previously, six months before, when an angel told Zacharias and Elizabeth, who were past childbearing age, that they would be able together to conceive a child who would be the forerunner of the Messiah—John the Baptist. And that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb, and that he also would have a great ministry and he would proclaim righteousness, and announce the coming of Messiah.

There was a miracle in the birth of John the Baptist because they were barren, but it wasn’t like the miracle that happened in the womb of Mary, without a human father. And there were things said about John the Baptist that certainly were unique and set apart—John, from all other births, about which nothing was ever sent from heaven. But it was fairly minimal when compared to the information they received about the Son that was coming into their family. What child’s life, what child’s destiny, what child’s impact, what child’s influence, with all the details of his life and character and accomplishments and effect, is ever laid out from before his birth? Never. Never.

Now what was told by Gabriel to Zacharias was enough to make Zacharias and Elizabeth wonder, in Luke 1:66, “What then will this child turn out to be?” speaking of the child who would be John the Baptist. They wondered. Mary doesn’t ask that question because so much revelation is given to Mary and Joseph that they don’t need to ask, “What will this child turn out to be?” The question Mary asked is, “How can this happen?” These are startled young people. They’re nondescript by all accounts, from an unimportant location, not Jerusalem, and yet they receive angelic messengers and this incredible message.

Go back to Luke chapter 1 with me, and be reminded of what we read earlier, that Gabriel shows up in Nazareth to a virgin who is betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David. His Davidic genealogy is given in Matthew, and Mary’s Davidic genealogy is given in Luke. Mary needed to come from the line of David because the child would bear the royal blood; but it was through the father’s line that the right to rule came, and so He had to be a descendant of Joseph in some sense, although not fathered by Joseph. But He had to be in the line of Joseph to have the right to rule, and Mary had to come from the line of David to bring royal blood to the child.

“Virgin’s name was Mary.” No last names, no middle names, no history. The angel comes in to her, in verse 28, and says, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Verse 29 says, “She was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.” Verse 30 indicates that she was afraid: “Stop being afraid.” It would be sensible to assume that she was absolutely terrified. An angelic visitor had showed up and given her an incredible message: that she would conceive in her womb and bear a son, and that son would be the Son of the Most High and, down in verse 35, “The Son of God.” Again, this is so extraordinary as to be unparalleled ever. The most astonishing, astounding words ever said about any child were said about the Lord Jesus Christ to His startled and shocked parents.

Summing it up, the angel says in verse 32, “He will be great.” And that seems like an understatement, doesn’t it? “He will be great.” We could translate that “extraordinary,” “wonderful,” “splendid,” “magnificent,” “noble,” “distinguished,” “eminent,” “illustrious,” “powerful,” or a collection of all of the above. His greatness needed, then, to be defined—what was going to make Him such a unique child.

And oh, by the way, it became apparent that He was great. As you follow the story of Jesus through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it is obvious that He had powers that no other person had ever displayed on earth. And repeatedly the gospel writers say people were amazed at His teaching. They were amazed at His words, His wisdom. They were amazed at His miracles. They were amazed at His healing. They were amazed at His control over the forces of hell, the demons. They were amazed at His control over the wind and the water and control over nature. Really, it turned out that He was an amazing man, like no other who ever had walked on this earth, or ever would. But at the beginning, all that Joseph and Mary could say was, “How can this be?” and be amazed at the things that were being said about Him.

Even after He was born, there were amazing things being said about Him at the Temple when He was taken there for dedication and circumcision—amazing things by Simeon, an old saint waiting for the redemption of Israel; amazing things by Anna, another old saint waiting for the Messiah’s arrival; all these amazing things being said about this child. He’s the greatest child ever born, and it was all laid out to this young, very ordinary couple, in the little place called Nazareth. That surprise and shock has basically spun through history, adoration and praise for that child that is almost incalculable. It’s almost beyond comprehension.

There is no person close to receiving all the tributes that Christ has received. You can take all the human beings who have ever lived and been noted as significant people, put them all together with all that has ever been said about all of them combined, and it doesn’t even approach close to what has been said about this child. When you think of it from the standpoint of Joseph and Mary, it’s breathtaking.

What do we learn about this child? What did they learn? What did they hear? What was told to them? Well look at the stunning realities. First of all, this child is God, this child is God. Look at verse 32, Luke 1: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High,” “the Son of the Most High.” Luke refers to God as the Most High several times: a couple of times in this chapter, once again in chapter 6, and then again in chapter 7 of the book of Acts. Most High—that is a title for God. That is El Elyon in Hebrew, God Most High. This is the superlative. There is no one as high and no one higher than the highest.

The Old Testament refers to God as the Most High 28 times, 19 of them in the book of Psalms. This title first occurs in Genesis 14:18, and frequently, as I said. And the way it is used gives us a comprehensive sense of what it intends to convey. For example, in Deuteronomy 32:8, we read concerning God, “The Most High divided to the nations their inheritance.” In Psalm 47:2 it says, “The Lord Most High is awesome; He is the great King over all the earth.”

There are a couple of uses of “the Most High” in the book of Daniel that are worth reading. Daniel 4 and verse 17 speaks of the Most High in these terms: He is “the Most High [who] is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.” He is in control of all of mankind. In Daniel chapter 5 and verse 18, “O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.” Verse 21, “The Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and . . . He sets over it whomever He wishes.” When you’re talking about the Most High, you’re talking about the sovereign of the universe. He has no equal. He is the Most High God. That title, then, clearly refers to the One who rules over nations.

In 2 Samuel 22:14, we read, “The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice.” And that with reference in Scripture to water, clouds, to lightning, to thunder; He not only is the Most High and sovereign over nations, but over nature. In Psalm 7:17 and 9:2 we read, Sing praise to the Most High because He is sovereign over the unrighteous. Yes, He is sovereign, sovereign Judge of the unrighteous.

Psalm 21:7 speaks of the mercy of the Most High given to those who trust in Him, showing He is sovereign over salvation. Psalm 46:4 refers to the tabernacles of the Most High as the place of security and protection for His people. He is sovereign over His people, who are called in Daniel chapter 7 “the saints of the Most High.” Lamentations 3:37 and 38 says He is sovereign over good, and He is sovereign over evil.

This title then, the Most High, is one of majestic sovereignty. No title more exalts God’s nature than that title. There is no equal, there is none higher. And this little baby, according to the Scripture, “will be called the Son of the Most High.” Down in verse 35, the “Child will be called the Son of God.”

What’s such a title saying? It is saying that He possesses the same nature as God, the same nature as God. Though a child of Mary, to be sure—and we’ll say more about that in a moment—He was God’s Son. He was the eternal Son, planted in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit without a human father. You might say that Mary was, in a sense, a surrogate mother. He was God’s own life, God’s essence. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And to prove that, “Nothing was made that wasn’t made by Him.” He’s the Creator God, the sovereign God.

No writer in the New Testament more clearly shows the meaning of sonship than John does. And I would invite you to go to John chapter 5, one of the definitive places where our Lord declares His nature as God. As per usual, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because He was healing people on the Sabbath, in verse 16. “But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’”

This is a stunning statement. On the surface it might not seem much, but what He is saying is God continues to work on the Sabbath, even after creating for six days. And we read, “God rested”; He didn’t rest from being God. He didn’t rest from holding the universe together. He doesn’t sleep, He doesn’t slumber, He doesn’t grow weary, He doesn’t faint. He simply rested from creation, but He did not go to sleep or disconnect. He sustains the entire universe by His presence and power. So Jesus says, “The Sabbath doesn’t apply to God, and it doesn’t apply to Me either.” Mark 2:27 says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Jesus is making an astonishing claim: “There are at least two for whom the Sabbath has no significance: God and Me. He works, and I work.”

They knew exactly what He was saying. Look at verse 18: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” That’s exactly what He was doing; that’s exactly what He’s doing. He’s saying to them, “God works, and I work, because the Sabbath doesn’t apply to God. God never rests.” “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary,” Isaiah 40 says.

And Jesus said, “And I work.” The Sabbath is for man; no Sabbath law written for man confines God. And they saw that as claiming equality with God, and that’s exactly what He was claiming. And they saw it as blasphemy, and for that they wanted “the more to kill Him.” He declares He’s equal with God.

Look at verse 19, John 5, “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son of Man can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.’” Jesus said, “I am equal to God in works. Whatever God does, I do,” which is to say, “Whatever God is capable of doing, I’m capable of doing. What God wills to do, I will to do. You aren’t indicting God, are you?” To accuse Christ is to accuse God. And you haven’t seen anything to what’s going to come in the resurrection and even in His glorious return, the greater works, and even in final judgment, the millennial kingdom, and the new heaven and the new earth.

In verse 21 He goes even further. Not only equal in works, but equal in power, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life.” God is a life-giver, and that’s back to John 1, isn’t it, “Nothing was made without Him.” He is the life. He is equal in power. He has physical and spiritual power to raise the dead and give life. And then He says at the end of that same verse, “To whom He wishes.” So He is equal in authority to God; He is equal in sovereign authority. Equal in works, equal in power, equal in authority.

Verse 22, He’s equal in judgment: “Not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” And He repeats that down in verse 27, “He gave authority to Him to execute judgment, because He’s the Son of Man.” Repeats it again in verse 30, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” “I have the right to judge, the authority to judge, the will to judge, the knowledge to judge, and I judge exactly as God judges.”

This claim is monumental: equal in works, equal in power, equal in authority, equal in judgment; consequently, verse 23, equal in honor, “So that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent Him.” This is an indictment of the whole religion of Judaism: “You think you honor God; you do not honor God unless you honor His Son, who is equal. You can’t honor God by rejecting Me.”

What do we have, then, in this child? Go back to Luke chapter 1. “The Son of the Most High,” the one who’s equal to God in works, power, authority. He has everything that God has because He is God. That’s why Matthew 1 says He is “Immanuel . . . God with us.” And even in Luke 1:43, Mary is called “the mother of my Lord.”

In Him the fullness of Godhead dwells bodily. First Timothy 3:16 says God was “manifested in the flesh.” Philippians 2, He was “in the form of God.” Hebrews 1, He’s “the exact representation” of God. That was a shock to that young couple. They were going to have a child who was God. The Most High God was going to be in their care, in Mary’s womb and in their care as an infant and a child. Stunning reality. That truth has literally exploded on human history and has been the testimony of believers since the first Christmas carol was written. And from what I’ve been able to find out, the first one was written in the year 129; and they’ve being written ever since. And Christians through all the centuries have given testimony that this child is God.

Listen to some familiar carols: “Joy to the world”—what’s the next line?—“the Lord is come.” “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning.” “Come adore on bended knee/Christ the Lord.” “Christ, by highest heaven adored;/Christ, the everlasting Lord . . . ./Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;/Hail th’incarnate Deity . . . /Jesus our Emmanuel.” “Yet in thy dark streets shineth/The everlasting light. . . ./O come to us, abide with us,/Our Lord Immanuel!” “Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.” “Incense owns a Deity nigh.” “The virgin’s sweet boy/Is the Lord of the earth.” “Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.” “How that in Bethlehem was born/The Son of God by name.” “God with [man] is now residing . . . ./Suddenly the Lord, descending.” “Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,/When Thou camest to earth for me.” And, “The Father gave His Son,/Gave His own beloved One.” Those are all Christmas carols. The church has always embraced that this is God; this is in our worship. His mother and father were amazed, and we’re still amazed, aren’t we?—at this child.

But there’s more. He was man, secondly. Look at verse 31: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.” “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.” In other words, this will be a human being; this will be a human being. He will be man. Physical conception without a man? “How can this be,” verse 34, “since I’m a virgin?” Answer from the angel, verse 37, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Verse 35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” “The Holy Spirit is going to plant the Son of God in human form in your womb.”

All the details about the birth indicate this is a real child. Mary was pregnant. Mary actually gave birth. The child was laid in a manger. The shepherds came and saw Him. Later, the wisemen came and saw Him. She went through a normal pregnancy. She gave birth as all births are. He was taken to be circumcised at the Temple in the appropriate time. This is God in human flesh. In “the fullness of time,” says Paul in Galatians 4:4, “God [brought] forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” The time was right—in “the fullness of time.” It was God’s time.

Jesus is truly man. It’s not an apparition; He’s not a spirit. In fact in Hebrews 2 it says, “He had to be made like His brethren in all things”—why?—“so that He [could be] a merciful and faithful high priest,” so that He could comfort us in our trials. He had to be a man to substitute for man and die in our place. He had to be a man to sympathize with men, having been “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” He became our sympathizer, our merciful and faithful High Priest.

He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was overcome with fatigue. He slept. He learned. He grew. He loved. He was astonished. He was glad. He was tired. He was angry. He was indignant. He was sarcastic. He was grieved. He was troubled. He exercised faith. He read the Scriptures. He prayed. He sighed in His heart when He saw another man in illness, and He cried when His heart ached. He felt everything that we feel and more, far more, because He never succumbed to temptation so that it became sin.

So He took the full degree of onslaught of temptation and never caved in. And why did He do this? That He might be a sympathetic high priest for His people, that He might intercede for us. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:5 identifies Him as “the man Christ Jesus.”

His parents were so astonished and amazed that God was coming into the world in human form. God could give a child to a barren couple; happened with Abraham, happened with Zacharias and Elizabeth. But for God to create in the womb without a man—nothing like this had ever happened. They were astonished. They were amazed. It was incomprehensible to them, but not to us. We have been singing for centuries things like this: “Holy infant so tender and mild.” “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” “See Him in the manger laid.” “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.” “What Child is this, who, laid to rest,/On Mary’s lap is sleeping? . . ./The Babe, the son of Mary!” “But of lowly birth didst Thou come to earth,/[In greatest] humility.” “Born of David’s line.” “Offspring of the Virgin’s womb. . . ./Pleased as man with men to dwell,/Jesus our Immanuel.” “For Christ is born of Mary.” All of that celebrates His true humanity.

Thirdly, He is sinless. If you look at verse 35, He is identified as “the holy Child,” “the holy Child.” Never has a mother held a holy child in her arms, never. What a child. Think about having a holy child. Think about it by contrast with the ones you got. Never a wrong attitude. Never an unkind thought. Never an inappropriate word. Never a disobedient act. Never a wrong attitude. Never thoughtless. Never unkind. Never selfish. That was the child Jesus.

Alexander Whyte, one of the notable Scottish preachers at the beginning of the twentieth century, said parents should teach their children to see the perfection of the child Jesus. He writes, “And as often as you see the heart-breaking proofs that your child has not been born as Mary’s Child was born: when you cannot but see and feel in your innermost heart your child’s fretfulness, and quarrelsomeness, and rudeness, and sulkiness, and impudence, and pride, and anger, and an unbroken will, take him [to Christ, and] pray both with him and for him.” And then he says, “[With you and your child] on your knees . . . [say] something like this—‘O God, the God and Father of the Holy Child Jesus, make this, my dear child, a child of God with Him. And after I am gone make him and keep him a man of God like Him.’ Take no rest yourself, and give God no rest,” writes Whyte, “till you see [evidence] of God not only sown in your child’s heart, but till you see him, as Mary saw her first-born son, subject to her in [the home], and growing . . . every day in wisdom, and . . . stature, and . . . favour with God and man."

No child was ever born without the need for discipline. No child was ever born without the need for correction, forgiveness, salvation—but this child. That’s why He said, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” That’s why He’s called the one who knew no sin. That’s why it’s said of Him He’s without sin—holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

Since Cain and Abel, all children have been unholy. This is such a shock to Joseph and Mary because it’s never happened. Peter’s mother had no holy child. Paul’s mother had no holy child. John’s mother had no holy child. Peter and John both call Jesus “Your holy servant Jesus.” Paul, not intending to slur his mother, said he was the chief of sinners.

In the matter of holiness, in the matter of Jesus, you have one person. He was in the fullness of holiness from His conception on. We recognize this too, don’t we? Don’t we sing, “O morning stars, together/Proclaim the holy birth”? “Holy Infant, so tender and mild . . . ./Radiant beams from Thy holy face”? “O Holy Child of Bethlehem,/Descend to us, we pray”? “But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room/For Thy holy nativity”? And many more. We sort of take that for granted. But imagine Joseph and Mary. There’d never been a holy child who was man and God.

And there’s more: He is a king, verse 32, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,” “the throne of His father David.” In verse 33, “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” He will be in the Davidic line because Joseph was in the Davidic line, Mary was in the Davidic line; so He gets both the right to the throne and the royal blood. He’s not like John the Baptist, who was from the house of Levi; He is from David’s line. He has a right to the Davidic throne, to the promise of 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 11 to 13, that God said—the greater Son who would establish an everlasting kingdom of righteousness.

And just to punctuate that this is a king, the Lord had the official kingmakers, the magi, according to Matthew chapter 2—the official kingmakers of the East. No Eastern king could ascend to a throne at that time in history unless trained in the disciplines of the magi, the laws of the Medes and the Persians, unless approved of and appointed by them. They were sort of a hereditary priesthood from among the Medes who had risen to great power in the Middle East. And even they come all the way to declare that Jesus is the King.

Christ means “the Anointed One,” speaks of His royalty. He has the right to rule from Joseph; He has the royal blood from Mary. He fulfills the promise of God to David, to bring a greater son who will rule and reign. Yes, this child was the King. And again, we sing that over and over: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!/Let earth receive her King . . . ./Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!” “Come and behold Him,/Born the King of angels.” “Come, adore on bended knee/Christ the Lord, the newborn King.” “Hark! the herald angels sing,/‘Glory to the newborn King!’” “Born a king in Bethlehem’s plain,/Gold I bring to crown Him again,/King forever, ceasing never,/Over [the world] to reign. . . ./King and God and sacrifice.” “This is Christ the King.” “The King of kings salvation brings;/Let loving hearts enthrone Him.” And it goes on: “Born a child and yet a king,/Born to reign in us forever . . . ./Rule in all our hearts alone . . ./Raise us to Thy glorious throne.” “Come and worship, come and worship,/[Come and] worship Christ the newborn King.” “For the manger of Bethlehem/Cradles a king! . . ./And we greet in His cradle/Our Savior and King!” “Peace on earth, good will to men,/From heaven’s all-gracious King.” This is an amazing child: God, man, sinless, holy, sovereign.

And finally, He is the Savior, verse 31, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.” Matthew 1:21, the angel said the same thing to Joseph: “You shall [name Him] Jesus, [because] He will save His people from their sins.” What does that have to do with the word Jesus? The word Jesus is the same as the Old Testament word Joshua, and it means “Jehovah saves,” “Jehovah saves.” He comes to save His people. Chapter 2 of Luke, verse 11, the angel says to the shepherds, “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Simeon gives that same testimony in chapter 2, down in verse 30: “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” “My eyes have seen Your salvation.” Anna gives the same testimony when she refers to the arrival of this Child as “the redemption,” verse 38, “of Jerusalem.” Came to save His people from their sins. What an amazing child.

And what do we sing? “Christ the Savior is born/Christ the Savior is born.” To you is born in David’s town this day one from David’s line, the Savior who is Christ the Lord. “Joy to the world . . . the Savior reigns.” “Peace on earth, and mercy mild,/God and sinners reconciled! . . ./Born to raise the sons of earth,/Born to give them second birth.” “Then let us all with one accord/Sing praises to our heavenly Lord/Who hath made [of heaven and earth naught],/And with His blood [mankind] bought.” “The King of kings salvation brings.” “Good Christian men, rejoice/With heart and soul and voice . . . ./Now you need not fear the grave:/Jesus Christ was born to save! . . ./Christ was born to save!/Christ was born to save!” “Remember Christ, our Savior,/Was born on Christmas Day/To save us all from Satan’s pow’r/When we were gone astray.” “Thou camest, O Lord, with the living Word/That [shall] set Thy people free;/But with mocking scorn, and with crown of thorn,/They led Thee to Calvary.”

This is all so astonishing, amazing to Joseph and Mary, but not to us. The church of Jesus Christ has been singing these truths ever since. So what should be our response? We know that; we know that. Our response should be to worship Him, right? And that’s what the carols tell us to do: “O Come let us adore Him.” “Then let us all with one accord/Sing praises to our heavenly Lord.” “Come [rich and poor] to own Him./The King of kings salvation brings;/Let loving hearts enthrone Him.” “O holy Child of Bethlehem,/Descend to us, we pray,/Cast out our sin and enter in,/Be born in us today. . . ./O come to us, abide with us,/Our Lord Immanuel!” “Calls you all/To gain the everlasting hall;/Christ was born to save!/Christ was born to save!” “O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,/There is room in my heart for Thee.” “Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask You to stay/Close by me forever and love me, I pray./Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,/And take us to heaven to dwell with You there.” The most astonishing child ever, still amazes us. Let’s pray.

Our hearts are full, Lord, with joyful truth—truth of salvation through the gift of Your Son. We’re so thankful for Him. May our worship increase to new levels and remain there. We are in awe not only of the Incarnation, but of the fact that His story is our story, too. He came into the world to redeem us who are so unworthy. Fill us with gratitude, the gratitude that issues in obedience and worship. We thank You in His name. Amen.