Pocket Thoughts - 12/5/25

Special Advent Edition

God * foretold the coming of the Messiah through His prophets * has given us the Greatest Gift – our Savior Jesus Christ * reveals Himself to those who seek Him.

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“Just when people most needed hope, God sent spokesmen to offer a foretaste of a better future. Throughout the words and works of the prophets, there were glimmers of a Savior – a King Who would rescue His people and restore them to God. In fact, there were more than three-hundred specific prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures about the promised “Messiah,” as they called Him…Most amazing of all was the coming Messiah’s mission. God said, ‘You will do more than restore the people of Israel to Me. I will make You a light to the Gentiles, and You will bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ (Isaiah 49:6) Can you see the picture that emerges? It was as if many different artists had drawn strange squiggles on paper separately – only to find that when their fragments of art were combined on a single canvas, there was a beautiful portrait of a King we would come to know as Jesus Christ.” – Dr. David Jeremiah, Why the Nativity?

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“Abraham received the promise of God, but he would not see it fulfilled in his lifetime. Even so, Abraham believed the Lord. Even when it seemed impossible, God would fulfill every promise He made to Abraham in His way and timing, and He would do it through Jesus Christ. God told Abraham that kings would come from his offspring, and on that holy night in Bethlehem, the King of creation was born – Jesus the son of Abraham, Jesus the Son of God. As we look back to celebrate His birth, we also look forward with confidence that He will come again. God will bring about His promises in His way and timing, and He will do it through Jesus Christ.” – The Daily Grace Co., Waiting for the Savior

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“It’s so easy to miss the greatest gift of all, the one that was laid right at our feet, the one we so desperately need. Jesus, the Savior of the world. It’s always been that way. On that first Christmas morning, almost everyone missed the greatest gift ever given. As the crowds poured into the cities of their birth to register, no one was looking for a gift with tiny toes and fingers.

On a night of quiet wonder, Heaven’s greatest gift was born.

No wonder most everyone missed the gift that night. He wasn’t what they were looking for. I wonder if we’ve changed much since then. It’s easy to become so familiar with the Christmas story that we forget it’s the gift we desperately need, the one we can’t live without.” – Sheila Walsh, The Gifts of Christmas

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 “Out of the last and forgotten son of Jesse comes forth one tender branch that will grow into a crown of thorns…a rugged cross…your ladder back to God. Jesus will go to impossible lengths to rescue you. Out of the stump of that fallen tree, watered with the living waters that flow from the depths of His grace, a twig sprouts. That twig will be the scepter that defeats your sin…and lets you grow again. Out of that stump and the sheared impossible there springs a single shoot – tender and vulnerable. There, here, in the midst of the inconceivable, the loud claims, the hard sells, the big spectacles, Christ comes small, the micro- macro-miracle Who comes in the whisper and says, Seek Me. Just where you are, look for the small glimpses of God-glory breaking in, breaking out, sprouting, shooting, unfurling, bearing fruit, making a Kingdom, remaking the world. Slow and still.” – Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift

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Father God, thank You for this wonder-full season of remembering what You’ve done for us by sending Your Son into our world. Thank You for making some aspects so very relatable to us – the humility of a lowly birthplace, the simple backgrounds of worshiping shepherds, the obscurity of a birth in the dead of night. We know all too well humility, simplicity, and obscurity. And thank You for the seemingly impossible aspects of the Christmas story that stir awe in our hearts – a multitude of angels illuminating the sky in worship, a guiding star, our Savior born to a virgin. Thank You for becoming one of us. Thank You for simultaneously being nothing like us at all. We look to the promised Day when transformation will come to our mortality because of Your sacrifice and Your gift of new life. We rejoice in the first Advent as we joyfully and confidently anticipate the second! All praise to You, King Jesus! Amen.

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“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King Who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In His days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.’” – Jeremiah 23:5-6