Happy Monday—Thanksgiving’s behind us (I hope you had a great day, no matter how many sat around your table or what was on the menu), we’re already into Advent, and today is the last day of November. We are certainly in a time of transition. We’ve left the familiar and are standing on the shore before crossing over into something we haven’t experienced before. Neither can we tell how deep the water is that we must pass through to get to the other side. This year has created so much chaos in our world, has brought our brokenness into greater focus, and has made it clear, if we hadn’t already figured it out, that we cannot make it on our own.

But the Lord has seen it all, and stands in the water, guiding us across.

This year has not caught God off guard. He knew we needed a Savior, so he sent Jesus. The book of John tells us  that “the Word [that is, Jesus] became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, MSG). That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, the Son of God laying aside the glory that he had with his Father and taking on our humanity, living with us and showing us the Father.

We’ll be looking at the characters of the Christmas story during December. What do we know about them? What do they have to teach us?

We start today with this stunning version of “Mary, Did You Know” by Voctave, featuring Mark Lowry. You may not know that  the lyrics were written by Mark Lowry and the music by Buddy Green. Even after my fifth time listening to the song I am still finding the music breathtaking and powerful and the words clearly revealing Jesus for who he is: the great I Am!

As we look together at Christmas’s characters in the next few weeks, may the Lord give us fresh insight into his heart through the coming of Jesus, and may he help us as we make our way through the deep waters of our world.

See you Thursday.