Detecting Christmas December 16 Devotional

Matthew 1:25 | ²⁵ but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

To see the Joseph Story is to marvel at the vulnerability of God. The Lord entrusted his son to a teenage girl and young carpenter. Joesph got to bestow the name Jesus on the newborn. The child was born in an unsanitary stable and had to survive a pogrom at a few weeks of age. Before life settled down in Nazareth, Jesus experienced a number of years as an immigrant in a strange land, apart from kin and clan and native culture.

This reinforces for me the passion that led the universe’s only truly self-sustaining independent being to risk such stark vulnerability and to know such actual dependence. It reminds us also how dependent we are on each other.

In what areas of your life are you vulnerable?

Gracious God,

Thank you for being willing to enter into our world, and to know dependence and vulnerability. Help us to care for those who depend on us. Amen.