On the 7th Day of Christmas My True Love Said to Me...Do Not Be Afraid

The angel said to her, " Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.”
Luke 1:30

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, " Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 1:20

Do not be afraid. We hear it again in the Christmas story. Yesterday we heard it spoken to aged Zacharias as a promise that God had heard every single time he prayed for a baby. From the first excited prayer he must have uttered as a naive young man looking with anticipation toward his future, to the prayers he prayed through the night as he listened to his grieving wife weeping for another month lost to her menstrual cycle, God heard every single prayer. There was no room for fear.

Perhaps the most astonishing declaration for the absence of fear was also the most unbelievable. How do you tell a virgin teenager that she will not only carry a baby in her untouched womb, but that this baby will be God robed in flesh, and then tell her not to fear? How do you tell her that she will be responsible for raising the Messiah and then tell her not to worry about it? How do you expect a teenager to lay aside fear and take on a responsibility no one else in all of time and eternity has ever or will ever carry?

And poor Joseph! The young love of his life expects him to believe that she has remained faithful, yet her bulging belly screams another story! Customs of the day said he had every right to have her stoned, but his heart wouldn’t let him. Would he stay with a girl whose faithfulness he questioned, or would he face a future without her? Suddenly, Joseph’s fitful sleep was interrupted by a holy visitor with the same message given to Mary and later to Zacharias: Do not be afraid. Joseph was told he didn’t have to fear taking Mary as his wife. God’s hand was on her life, and not the hand of any man. If God had chosen Mary for this task, He had certainly chosen Joseph as well, so he didn’t have to fear his future either.

The players in the nativity faced daunting tasks and they had reason to tremble. God saw their trepidation and sent holy messengers to assure them that there was no reason for fear. In the earthly realm, there was a lot to fear, but when God is with you, fear dissipates. Mary could face a virgin pregnancy because the Lord was with her. There are times you are afraid as well. Like Mary, you may ponder things in your heart and wonder how in the world things have come about the way they have. As you consider the situations that cause you anxiety--Will this pregnancy result in a living baby, or will I lose this one too? Will the adoption fall through? Will I have a job in the coming weeks? Can our marriage survive this struggle?--remember that Christmas is all about Jesus Christ taking the robe of human flesh to be God Emmanuel, God With Us, so that we don’t have to be afraid of our future. The same God who sustained Mary through the calling He gave her walks with you and will sustain you as well.

Like Joseph, your future may not be coming together as you planned. He thought he’d marry his sweetheart and live happily ever after. Instead, he married a pregnant virgin and became stepfather to the Son of God! Don’t you imagine there were times he simply didn’t think he was up to the task? Don’t you think he was afraid he couldn’t do what God was asking him to do? Do not be afraid. If God assigns you a task, He’ll give you the capabilities to complete the task, whether the task is following God into full-time ministry on the mission field, taking a leap of faith in a new relationship, pouring your love into a foster child, or stepping way out of your comfort zone to minister to “untouchable” people when you’d much rather have a “regular” life of 2.5 kids and a white picket fence! God knew the task He assigned to Joseph and instructed him to marry Mary without fear. As you face the exciting task of trusting God and living a life of His calling, He tells you the same: Do not be afraid.

Isn’t it amazing that our indescribable, uncontainable God cares enough about our emotions to speak to us and comfort us? Do not be afraid!

If your heart carries fear or unrest in this Christmas season, it is my prayer that you will sense the presence of God Emmanuel so very near to you today, and that you will not be afraid.