What Gabriel Never Expected

Max Lucado

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What Gabriel Never Expected - Daily Devotional by Max Lucado

Prior to Bethlehem God gave us his messengers, his teachers, his words. But in the manger God gave us himself. Extraordinary, don’t you think? I imagine even Gabriel scratched his head at the idea of “God with us.” Gabriel surely was not one to question his God-given missions. When God sent, Gabriel went.

And when word got out that God was to become a human, Gabriel was no doubt enthused. He could envision the moment: The Messiah in a blazing chariot. The King descending on a fiery cloud. An explosion of light from which the Messiah would emerge. What he never expected, however, was a slip of paper with a Nazarene address. “God will become a baby,” it read. “Tell the mother to name the child Jesus. And tell her not to be afraid.”

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Devotion by Max Lucado | The Almighty Jehovah | https://thealmightyJehovah.com

Gods With Us Promise

Jesus understands you. He’s faced hunger, sorrow, and death and wants to face them with you. The Bible says Jesus “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

If Jesus understands our weaknesses, then so does God. Jesus was God in human form. He was God with us. That’s why Jesus is called Immanuel. Immanu means “with us.” El refers to Elohim, or God. So Immanuel is not an “above-us God” or a “somewhere-in-the-neighborhood God.” He came as the “with-us God.” All of us.

“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Search for restrictions on the promise, and you’ll find none. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with us” promise. God is with us. What great news!

To Be Near You

John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

Let’s begin where the earthly ministry of Jesus began—in the womb of Mary. The God of the universe, for a time, kicked against the wall of that womb. He was born in the poverty of a peasant, spent his first night in the feed trough of a cow. He didn’t have to, did he? Jesus could have become a voice—a voice in the air. Jesus could have become a message—a message in the night. Jesus could have become a light—a light in the night. But he became flesh. Why?

Jesus came to be near you. And any concerns you might have about his power and love were removed from the discussion the moment he became flesh and entered the world. What a beginning. What an entrance. And what a moment.

What Gabriel Never Expected