Grace and peace be yours through our Savior, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Luke 1:26-38) In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, {27} to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. {28} The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." {29} Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. {30} But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. {31} You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. {32} He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, {33} and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." {34} "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" {35} The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. {36} Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. {37} For nothing is impossible with God." {38} "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

O God, our Father in heaven, great is your name, and greatly we praise you. The heavens declare your glory, and we lift up our hearts to you, not as we ought, but as we are able. Today we praise you especially that you have shined the light of your salvation in the midst of the darkness of this world by the giving of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received the gift of everlasting life. Amen.

I hope you are finished with your Christmas shopping. You only have a few days left. It is always difficult to come up with just the right gift for the person you are shopping for. Let me give you a few pointers on what not to give. Appliances – As practical as they are, they are just not very romantic. Exercise equipment or a gym membership – they sound good, but if the person hasn’t asked for them, they may not take kindly to your way of "dropping a hint." If she asks for a one-carat ring, don’t get her a ring that actually has a carrot dangling from it on a string – no matter how funny you think it is.

I know I got in trouble at Shelley’s and my first Christmas together. We were only married 6 months at the time. We had plenty of crystal and good china among our wedding presents, but who really uses that stuff. We didn’t have many practical kitchen utensils. One thing we were missing was a rolling pin. Whenever we needed to flatten cookies or piecrusts, we used a full plastic soda bottle. It didn’t work very well. So I thought a great present would be a rolling pin for Shelley. And not just any ordinary rolling pin. A nice, heavy marble rolling pin. It was great! It was practical! It was marble! Who could argue with that? Shelley could. On Christmas morning, she picked up my special present, which was obviously heavy (and wrapped like a rolling pin), and she said to me, "This had better not be a rolling pin." Whoops! I survived, though.

We may make some bad choices when picking out Christmas gifts, but thankfully God has given us the greatest gift anyone could give. He gave us his Son, our Savior. When you give a bad gift, you are embarrassed by it. But when you have a really good gift sitting under the Christmas tree, you are excited. You know your loved one is going to love that gift and enjoy it. God was excited about his Christmas present to the world. He knew we would love and enjoy his great gift. And so he sent his special angel, Gabriel, to announce to Mary about God’s great present. This present would be the Savior wrapped in humility. And he would be the Son of God wrapped in human flesh.

As a father I love to read stories and nursery rhymes to my children. One of the most well-known nursery rhymes is "Mary Had a Little Lamb" written by Sarah Hale of Boston in 1830. Apparently, the poem was written about a classmate named Mary Sawyer who arrived at her Old Redstone Schoolhouse in Massachusetts one day with her lamb following her.

It is a nice, cute poem, but there is a better poem I found with true, religious significance. It tells us about the Virgin Mary’s lamb who was our Savior. I have added some Bible passages to flush out the full meaning of this poem. Mary had the little lamb, who lived before His birth; Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

Mary had the little Lamb; see Him in yonder stall; Virgin-born Son God, to save man from the Fall. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Mary had the little Lamb, obedient Son of God; Everywhere the Father led, His feet were sure to trod. "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." (John 6:38)

Mary had the little Lamb, crucified on the tree; The rejected Son of God, He died to set men free. "It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed… but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect." (1 Peter 1:18,19)

Mary had the little lamb -- men placed Him in the grave; Thinking they were done with Him; but to death He was no slave! "The angel said, 'He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come, and see the place where he lay.'" (Matthew 28:6)

Mary had the little Lamb, ascended now is He; All work on Earth is ended, our Advocate to be. "Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us … approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Mary had the little Lamb -- mystery to behold! From the Lamb of Calvary, a Lion will unfold. When the Day Star comes again, of this be very sure; It won't be Lamb-like silence, but with the Lion's roar! "Then one of the elders said to [St. John], "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, has triumphed… and the Mighty Angel came down from heaven robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; and his face shone like the sun … He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and gave a loud shout like the ROAR of a lion." (Revelation 5:5; 10:1-3)

The picture of Jesus as a humble lamb occurs throughout Scripture and tells us exactly what he came to earth to do. You see, lambs, as innocent as they may seem are born to die. Whether they were in Egypt during a Passover or on Hebrew altars for daily sin offerings or on a bloody cross. In Scripture, lambs die to save other people. Lambs are meant for sacrifice. As soon as John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" God’s great present is the Lamb of God, who was born to be our Savior.

God’s radiant messenger revealed news that would change the world forever. Gabriel said to Mary, "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus." The name Jesus means, "the Lord is salvation". The long-awaited Savior, promised to Adam and Eve over 4000 years before, was now to be born – and Mary was to be His mother.

Why a Savior? Look at us. We think we are pretty good people, dressed in nice clothing for church, lots of love to give at this time of the year, and giving hearts that have filled up the space under the Christmas tree with loads of presents. We are pretty nice people, and we are also pretty rotten people. Think of how we celebrate this season with monetary gifts and only think of the real Christmas gift when we are sitting in church. Think of how busy we are shopping and cooking and decorating, and the Christ-child has to wait until we find some time to spend with him. Think of how irritable and grumpy we become at this time of the year, as we forget the joy and peace that this Savior offers to us. Think of how depressed we become when we are away from friends and family, all because we neglect the love and kinship that our heavenly Brother wants to share with us.

We need a Savior. We need this Savior to spare us from the stress of deadlines and the frenzy of commercialism. He is the Savior sent to redeem us from our sin. He is the King who shatters our pride and rouses us from our spiritual slumber and apathy. He is the great Christmas present who cheers the lonely, he encourages the fearful, and he gives hope to the despairing. He is the message of peace and the music of God’s grace.

Just as you wrap your presents in wrapping paper, so the greatest gift of all was wrapped in humility. You would think he would be born in majesty and glory, but instead he was born to a simple young woman who was engaged to a carpenter. You would think he would come as a magnificent Lion, but instead he came as a humble Lamb. This grand and glorious Savior of the world was wrapped in humility. The best things do come in simple packages. That was very true with God’s present of the Savior.

What was Mary’s reaction to Gabriel’s message? "How can this be since I am a virgin?" "How can this be?" We ask the same question as Mary did when we think about the miracle of Christmas, the miracle of the incarnation – of God becoming flesh. What God was about to do goes beyond human comprehension and understanding. "How can this be?"

Look at what God is asking us to believe at Christmas! It seems impossible. He asks us to believe that Jesus, His Son, our God, who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, became a man. He asks us to believe that a virgin had a baby. He asks us to believe that Jesus was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit and had no human father. He asks us to believe that a perfect God would willingly suffer and die for sinful people.

Really what God asks us to believe is impossible, if not ridiculous. But then again, that's what miracles are all about. They defy our human understanding and exemplify the greatness of our God. Gabriel reminds us that "nothing is impossible with God." It was such impossibly good news that Gabriel announced to Mary. A miracle so wonderful that only God could accomplish it -- the conception and birth of the Son of God.

This is a miracle of the almighty God of heaven and earth wrapped in mortal, human flesh. Think about it! It just blows your mind away. This present that Gabriel told Mary about was the Ruler of the stars who would be nourished at her breast. He was the Bread of Life, who would become hungry for strained peas and creamed corn. He was the Living Water, who would become thirsty. He was the Way, who would become wearied on his journeys around Galilee. He was the Truth who would be accused by false witnesses. He was the Judge of the living and the dead who would be brought to trial by an earthly judge. He was the Prince of Peace who would suffer agony on a cruel cross. He was the eternal God of life and death, who would allow himself to die. He was the Maker of men, who would himself become a man. That has to be a miracle!

Jesus was God wrapped in human flesh. He was a present for you, for me, and for everyone. This just shows you how far our God would go to save us from ourselves. It shows you how far out of our hands gaining our own salvation is. God’s plan of salvation was something only God could come up with and only God could accomplish. Our salvation is a gift. It is a gift that only God could give. It is a gift that God announced to Mary through his angel Gabriel. It is the gift of God becoming man to be our Savior from sin. It just shows us how much our God loves us that he would go through all this for us.

There are some pretty lame gifts out there – like a rolling pin for your wife or that black spray paint to cover bald spots (which I wanted to buy my father-in-law one year) or coal (which I did get one year). But there are also some good gifts that may be sitting under your tree this year. You can’t go wrong with power tools for the guys, expensive jewelry for the ladies, or toys and games for the children. The greatest gift is the whole reason for the Christmas season. It is the gift of God’s Son. This Christmas, remember the present that the angel announced. Celebrate and worship, thank and praise God for his good gift of our Savior wrapped in humility and his Son wrapped in human flesh. He is the greatest gift of all time. Amen.

To our God be glory and praise for ever and ever. Amen.