The Miracles of Christmas

If not for another name for miracles, Christmas would not exist without them. In Luke’s gospel, writes Belmonte, “we read of Elizabeth and Zacharias, an elderly couple who were ‘righteous and blameless.’ But they were also childless. Through the gift of a miraculous vision, and the message of an angel, Zacharias was told that his wife would bear a son. They were to call him John. This child would ‘be great in the sight of the Lord,’ and ‘make ready a people prepared for the Lord’ and so three miracles came to pass. A vision was given. An elderly couple became parents.” But, asks Belmonte, what of the third miracle of Zacharias? Though given these promises, Zacharias would not believe the words of the angel Gabriel. So the power of speech was taken from him. Gabriel said: “you will not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled.” Belmonte continues: Zacharias’s unbelief reminds us that we are too often slow to believe miracles, or we doubt them entirely. When little John was born, and Zacharias was asked what name the child’s should be. Taking up a tablet, he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly, he was able to speak again. Are we too often silent also? If we forget the miracles that gave rise to Christmas, we lose something deeply important. God help our unbelief, and give us eyes to see the miracles given to all people in Christmas.

“Mary was a young woman rich in faith, and highly favored of God,” writes Belmonte. “She was chosen to be the mother of the Lord Jesus. So it was that the angel Gabriel appeared to her bearing a promise radiant with hope. ‘You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” The promise of a Savior, miraculously conceived the blessed assurance that with God, nothing is impossible. But this was a difficult miracle. Mary, a woman of purity in whom God was greatly pleased, was to suffer the indignity of an unwed mother. She was to bear a child although she had no husband. In her day, this was an offense punishable by stoning to death. What would her fiancé, the carpenter Joseph, say?

Mary, though she would be the mother of our Lord, was not the only one deeply important to the story of Jesus. She had been betrothed to a righteous young man named Joseph. When he learned that Mary was pregnant – that she had, to all appearances of that time and place conceived a child out of wedlock – he decided to end their betrothal quietly, to keep Mary from public dishonor. It was then another miracle unfolded. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” A divine explanation, Divine confirmation and a word of what this child Jesus would do. He would save his people from their sins. Joseph was given the high privilege of being this child’s foster father, to guide his steps along with Mary. Joseph was given a miraculous dream and privilege.

In the late stages of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with her son John, her kinswoman Mary went to see her. As soon as they saw each other, and Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, her baby leapt in her womb. John was yet to be born, but here was a joyous, unforgettable confirmation that Mary’s son, Jesus, would be all that miracles promised he would be. “Blessed is she who believed,” Elizabeth said, “for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Mary, for her part, was given the miraculous gift we know as The Magnificat. She spoke divinely inspired words, saying, in part: “My soul magnifies the Lord…He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him – from generation to generation.”

After this, we read that these two mothers-to-be spent about three months together there in Elizabeth’s house. What must it have been like for to speak of the miracles that were unfolding in their lives, and to bear children of such awe-inspiring promise! The poet William Blake spoke of seeing “eternity in an hour.” We can only imagine what Elizabeth and Zacharias felt when they looked on their little newborn son, John. Here was a miracle child, theirs to raise in the ways of the Lord. In time to come, John would prepare the way of the Lord Himself – Jesus. Elizabeth and Zacharias were given a divine privilege in the raising of their son. John was given a divine privilege in heralding the coming of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

John’s birth was miraculous, but it was only the prelude, as it were, to the central miracle of all; the birth of Jesus. It was as C.S. Lewis once said: “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this or results from this.” Lewis’s words find a beautiful counterpart in the poet Hannah More, who said: And more to mark the grace of Heaven, This Son, by miracle, was given and yet, there was no home, as it were, for this miracle.

With no room at the inn in Bethlehem where Joseph wished for Mary to bear her child, they took shelter in a stable. Their plight inspired the poet G.K. Chesterton to write of the hope caught up with the miracle child, Jesus, who was born without a home: To the end of the way of the wandering star, To the things that cannot be and that are, To the place where God was homeless; and all men are at home.

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