"He makes everything right" Sermon / Christmas Children's program (Luke 2:19) / Pr. Lucas Albrecht / Sunday December 16th 2018: Season of Advent / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Text: Luke 2 – Children’s Christmas Program
Theme: “He makes everything right”
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Intr – When we stop to think, everything went wrong in that first Christmas.

Maria had to dispose of all her 'perfect wedding’ plans when she learned that she would be pregnant before Wedding Day. Joseph had to face the challenge of fathering a child He knew was not his own.
The mother of Jesus had to travel on the back of an animal while in the last weeks of her pregnancy. When they needed a place to stay the night, they couldn’t even find a simple bed. She had no family doctor, no Universal Health Card. In order to be able to give birth to their child they had to scramble to make things work as best as possible.
Then, although that boy was no less than the Messiah Himself, the King of Kings, the Greatest of all time, no important leader, king or great personality of his time came to pay him a visit. The only ones who came where unknown people, like the shepherds of Bethlehem. Maria had to spend her first Christmas in a stable, poorly accommodated, far from her family, surrounded by unknown people. No one would bring her a slice of turkey or a figgy pudding.

But then, the Christmas Gospel says that Mary "meditated and kept everything in her heart".(Luke 2) And as time passed by it showed that she did very well. For when everything seemed to go wrong, God made it work right.

God made the birth of the Savior happen. God caused Hope to come into the world. Not only did God use humility to overthrow arrogance, but the whole Christmas story shows that what for human standards may seem wrong, out of place, even crazy, under Divine standards we can call it Plan, Providence, Care, and Love. In that manger of Bethlehem, He showed that He wanted to reconnect the whole world with Him through that Baby King – the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

As we stop and think it through again, we realize God made everything right that first Christmas.

Christmas is a time of light, peace, love and hope. We celebrate all these good gifts for sure, but we need to bear in mind every Christmas, every day, that in the midst of what only seems to be or go wrong, God always acts right. He makes everything fall in place. In the midst of our mistrust, He brings security. IN those times when we many things may get us worried, others may get us tired, or even anxious and depressed, almost despaired we know that in Him we can Trust, persevere; we can hope and rest. All because of that night when all that seemed to be wrong He caused to happen right.

Christmas is a time to rememeber that, even when everything seems to be like they were with the Son of God and His family in the night of the first Christmas – apparently wrong, but essentially, perfectly right – it is the same with our lives too. Resting and trusting in Him, acting according to His will means being in the right, safe and promising path.

Well, often this trust and confidence is not rational, I know. But faith goes beyond reason. It is deep in our hearts. It is in Christ. And because of this, it is in the absolutely right way, which will lead us to the right place.

Cc - If we stop to think then, we realize God has always made everything work so right! Always.
So - believe me - this is not going to change now.