Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
\n \u2014 Luke 1:58<\/p>\n
The story of Jesus\u2019 birth is intertwined with another miraculous birth\u2014that of John, who was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Though Zechariah did not believe at first that this could happen, God fulfilled his promise. And when Zechariah named the child John, as the angel had instructed, he was able to speak again (see Luke 1:11-20; Dec. 4). The name John means \u201cGod is gracious.\u201dWhile we might be used to thinking of God\u2019s grace in the birth and life of Jesus, we may also ask about other ways we see God\u2019s grace at work in this season. Maybe you have seen a strained relationship restored, or an illness healed. Maybe you have seen temptations lifted, or fears relieved. Can we name such gifts as illustrations of God\u2019s grace?Not only did Zechariah and Elizabeth receive God\u2019s mercy; they invited their neighbors and relatives to share in their joy in what God had done for them. During the Christmas season, many of us have opportunities to gather with family and friends. Do we also take time with others to share with them our experiences of God\u2019s mercy to us?Christmas is a season for reflecting on God\u2019s grace and mercy to his people. May you name, and celebrate, that mercy today.<\/p>\n
Holy God, you surprise us again and again with your grace. Open our eyes to what you are doing, and loosen our tongues to speak of your faithfulness. For Jesus\u2019 sake, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. \u2014 Luke 1:58 The story of Jesus\u2019 birth is intertwined with another miraculous birth\u2014that of John, who was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age. Though Zechariah did not believe at first that this could<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[238,3205,875],"class_list":["post-12079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-gods","tag-mercies","tag-naming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}