The best gifts are those that totally take us by surprise, but with a surprise gift comes the risk of disappointment. Have you ever been disappointed with a Christmas gift? Maybe you didn’t get the thing on your list but got something else instead? A surprise gift makes a great Christmas; a disappointing gift can ruin a Christmas. That’s the great thing about Santa Claus, right? He gets you exactly what was on your list. He doesn’t deviate, he doesn’t try to get creative or sentimental or go out on a limb and improvise; Santa never disappoints you. But he never really surprises you either. But when it comes to gifts, I think that the sweetest and best gift is actually the gift that you never knew you needed, a gift you didn’t even know to put on your list. But someone who knows you best gives it to you, knowing deep down that it is exactly what you need and want. And that is exactly the kind of gift we celebrate at Christmas. The record of the events of the very first Christmas tell us that those who came to the cradle and the manger were seeking something, but they found something they never expected. And ultimately, that is our question on this Christmas. Do we want a Heavenly Father who doesn’t always give us everything on our list, who risks disappointing us in the short term in order to surprise us with a gift we didn’t know that we desperately need?

If you are not a follower of Christ, the idea of resurrection may sound completely unbelievable; indeed, even Jesus’ closest followers struggled with His claims that He would die and be raised. But Christians also have two challenges when it comes to resurrection: some Christians will over-emphasize the cross at the expense of the resurrection. And other Christians still will declare the importance of the resurrection, but can only imagine its significance as having future value for believers awaiting the new creation. It can be easy to miss, but the miracle of resurrection is clear and evident from the very beginning of the Christmas story. Join us this morning as we look at Simeon’s prophecy in Luke 2 and are brought to understand and appreciate the true gravity of the miracle of resurrection.

The phrase “deafening silence” could adequately describe the 400 years of history between the last book in the Old Testament and the angel announcing the birth of the promised Savior on that first Christmas morning. Imagine your experience of God as a burning bush, an audible voice, a pillar of cloud and fire traveling before you. He parted the sea and provided bread from heaven; He consumed your enemies and went before you in battle in miraculous ways; He spoke clearly and often through His prophets. And then silence. Do you feel that way sometimes in your walk with God? The gospel writer Luke, in recounting the Christmas story, wants God’s people to once again know that the Spirit of God has awakened; that the early rays of dawn are showing themselves in our darkness. Luke opens his gospel with the Holy Spirit at work, filling His people. Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit; the baby in her womb is filled with the Spirit and leaps for joy; Zechariah is filled with the Spirit and once again begins to praise and prophesy. But the biggest miracle of Christmas is what the Holy Spirit does in Mary, the mother of Jesus. I know this can seem like a familiar text, but let’s listen with fresh and expectant ears.

This week starts the season of Advent, the season of waiting for and anticipating the coming of Jesus which we will celebrate at Christmas. And for the kid in all of us, it begins the season to think about giving and getting gifts. It can sound unspiritual and worldly to talk about presents at Christmas. But isn’t that what we are celebrating? The joy in receiving the greatest gift ever, Jesus Himself. We are getting ready to celebrate this miracle of Christmas, but when we look at the whole of Scripture, that first miracle of that baby born on Christmas night was just the beginning of other miracles that would come. Because in that manger was not only the greatest gift the world has ever known, but also the greatest gift giver the world has ever known. Sometimes we don’t see it, because we stop at the manger; we stop at the cross. But Jesus is present with us every day in even more miraculous ways than those. So this season we are going to look ahead to all the miraculous ways that Jesus comes to us starting with the fact that He is Immanuel, God with us.