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Christmas is a time of surprises – things that take our breath away. Life, at its best, is not really measured by the breaths that we take, but by the breaths that we miss. Times like Christmas when the things that cannot be, are. I don’t think it’s remarkable at all that at the time of the first Christmas, Mary couldn’t speak.

In the whole narrative of Christmas there is no word of Mary recorded. Luke 2:19 simply says, “…but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

In Bethlehem the long awaited promise was fulfilled. The newborn child was to be the Saviour. Israel was no longer the great nation whose faith had sustained them in days gone by. They were captives in their own land, not only by the Romans, but by their sinful lives. What Israel needed now was a Saviour.

As we listen to the news or read the paper, we realize how much we are like the Israel of old. Wars, sickness, poverty and injustice – it was a world much like ours, populated with people like us: sinful, lost people who need a Saviour.

In Luke 2:10 we read that the first announcement of Christ’s birth came to shepherds. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” The message of the Gospel is not something reserved for the powerful or the exclusive, it’s to shepherds!

One of the things I enjoy at Christmas is hearing children’s letters to Santa. One of my favourites said, “Dear Santa, There are three little boys who live at our house. There is Jeffrey, he is 2. There is David, he is 4 and there is Stephen, he is 7. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time, but Stephen is good ALL of the time. I am Stephen!”

Unfortunately, we aren’t all Normans – we’re shepherds! The real message of Christmas is salvation. “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Bethlehem leads right to Calvary. Christmas is the announcement that we were worth enough to God for Him to come. God cared enough for us, the shepherds of this world, to send Jesus.

The shepherds welcomed the Saviour, but many missed the experience of that first Christmas. In the hustle and bustle that often accompanies this season, may we take a few moments to ponder, as Mary did on that first Christmas, the miracle of the Saviour’s birth and allow it to be one of those moments when our breath is taken away as we think about the depth of God’s love in sending Jesus. May we never take this gift for granted!