[notice]A monthly column by farmer, preacher and writer for Jesus, Angus Buchan[/notice]
In the Gospel of Luke 1:46-55 we hear and read of the beautiful song of Mary, the mother of Jesus. As I read this beautiful song again, for the umpteenth time, I realise one thing that Mary was obviously the most blessed woman that has ever walked, or ever will walk on the face of this earth. She was not divine, but yet she was a young maiden who was full of faith, love for God and was a holy person. She wrote this song to her God, our Heavenly Father which says “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant.”
My dear friend, I’m reading a song here of exceptional thanksgiving towards God for His blessing. God is looking for thankful servants. That is one of the main reasons why I believe the Lord chose Mary the mother of Jesus because she was thankful and she had a tremendous appreciation and understanding of the wonderful opportunity and gift that God had given to her to be able to carry the Son of God in her womb for nine months and then to give birth to Him into this world, to look after Him, teach Him, nurture Him until He came of age. An unbelievable blessing and gift!
Time for gratitude
This Christmas time we need to be more grateful for what we have. If you sit down and just count your blessings, as Mary did, you will see that God has blessed you immensely. He has given you victory over many battles over the past year, He has filled you with good things and He has helped you to see the year through, not only you, but your family and loved ones as well.
Let us this Christmas become grateful and thankful for what Jesus Christ has done for us. Truly, my dear friend, if it was not for Christmas time where would we be? We would have no hope, we would have no future, and we would have no understanding of the true word gratitude.
So let us go out this Christmas and do likewise to our fellow man. Let us tell them about the goodness of Jesus Christ. Let us thank God for His faithfulness towards us. Why He chose you and me is a mystery because surely He could have found much better people, but He has actually chosen us and for that we need to be eternally grateful. Let us therefore go out and do likewise to our fellowman. Let us bring joy, peace, hope and understanding to each one of them.
May God bless you as you continue to serve Him, and to bring Jesus to the poor and the needy this Christmas time.
Yours in Christ service
Angus, Jill and the Shalom team
amen