Luke 1:49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.

This is Mary mother of Jesus in a declaration of praise which is based on what God did to her, not for her. God would do wonderful things for her after this one thing He did to her.

Mary conceived a child with God thru no act of her own. This was a wonderful blessing bestowed upon her. With this conception began a personal relationship which no one else understands and would put her life at risk if she were to declare it.

This has reminded me of the time God did a wondrous work in me that was a miracle beyond my ability to grasp as a teenager. As I recall the event today, all I can say for sure is that God made Himself known to me in a way that only God could have done.

I was an angry teen and I did not know why. I was getting into fights in school for no good reason. I was afraid of my becoming like my oldest brother. With that sense of doom I raised my hand at an alter call and when I did, anger left me.

That was not my salvation moment, even though others perceived it to be just that. For me it was God reveling Himself only as God can, miraculously.

Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

I would love to hear about your “to me” moments. It is a testament of faith. I can think of no better time to share our witnesses than this season of celebration of the birth of Christ.

Galatians 4:4a But when the fulness of the time was come,

Revelation 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

How many of you believe that this pronouncement of the fullness of time is related to a pregnancy coming full term? That is easy to believe. It makes sense.

Exodus 3:7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

Perhaps it is the travail that indicates the timing required for God to set His will in motion. Pain precedes birth but in God’s timing, pain precedes intercession. If the Exodus was a forerunner of delivery, then suffering precedes the coming of our savior’s conception just as it did when Moses was cast out of Egypt to come to the mountain of God to receive instruction.

Hebrews 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

God in His infinite wisdom pronounced His Son’s coming in a series of prophetic declarations so that man would know of a certainty who Immanuel should be to them, the Messiah.

Just as Jesus birth was not the fulfillment of the prophecies proclaiming His coming, for Bethlehem had not travailed her loss as yet, even His birth was not the fulfilling of time.

Isaiah 62:11 Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

His work of salvation, the fulfillment of the prophecies would not come until on the cross He declared, “It is finished.”