Down to Earth: A Christmas Devotional JourneySample

Day 8: Expect The Unexpected

Reflection

Up at the front of the queue, coins clatter into the box. The line shuffles forward again.

For the 1st-Century Judeans queuing to pay their taxes to Rome, the kind of rescue God’s people needed was obvious: liberation from the foreign power occupying their land. In most of their minds, the Messiah would be a Ferocious Warrior and Tactful Diplomat like King David – an undeniably Brilliant Leader, sent to deliver the nation of Israel from this deep indignity.

And perhaps it’s finally about to happen. Because just as the prophet Isaiah foretold 500 years ago, someone seems to be preparing the way for God’s Chosen One.

By embodying Isaiah’s vision of one "calling in the wilderness", John the Baptist is signaling that Someone Greater is coming – a Messiah who will do things no one could ever dream of. Filling in valleys, flattening mountains. Or, in other words, carrying out a Rescue on an unprecedented scale.

To the Judeans, the idea of a military victory liberating the nation may have felt as unlikely as filling in valleys or flattening mountains. In our own lives today, there will be things that feel similarly impossible. Things we may have even cried out to God to rescue us from.

But the Rescuer, and the Rescue itself, won’t necessarily meet our expectations. Though you, the 1st-Century Judeans, and I might not get the rescue we want, we’re offered the Rescue we need. That’s what we’re going to reflect on for the next week: the Unexpected Rescue that our down-to-earth Savior pulls off.

Prayer

God of The Rescue, help me to see how even in my everyday life You can fill in valleys and make mountains flat. Whatever difficulties I face in my work, family life, or community, help me remember You’ve already rescued me from sin that seemed impossible to escape.