"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

What amazing words these must have been to Mary, a young woman, when she first heard them. Just minutes before she had probably been engaged in some mundane task of daily life in her mother's home, perhaps grinding flour or baking bread, maybe weaving or spinning wool into yarn. If she was like most young women who are shortly to be married, her mind would have been turned to her future life with Joseph, what their home would be like, the children they would have and the life that they would lead together. Happy images of the future would have filled her thoughts. She would have had her hopes, dreams and expectations--images of how her life would be as the future wife of Joseph.

Suddenly with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, her visions of the future contained a new and dramatically different element. The angel told her that she was highly favored and blessed among women, that the Lord was with her and that she would soon conceive and bring forth a son whose name would be Jesus. This child would be given the throne of Mary's ancient forebear, King David, and reign forever.

Mary voiced the question of how this would take place. She knew the order of natural conception and knew that the angel's message did not fit into this order. In explanation the angel Gabriel told her of the greatest miracle of all time saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. Some people are troubled by the idea of miracles based on their picture of cause and effect in this world. They have accepted that the only causes are natural ones, the laws of physics and so on. For such a person the idea of Jesus being born without a natural father is fantastic beyond belief.

But we are called to believe that miracles have and do occur. There are forces that attack this belief. We have grown up in a culture that has a strong sense of natural order. Science today is capable of explaining so many events that previously were mysteries. It is capable of explaining them by means of fundamental laws of nature. For some this sense of natural law can become so strong that the Lord's active presence within creation vanishes. For some there is no Divine intervention within this system. All is fixed and moves along with changes taking place by mere random accident. But it could be noted that according to natural law most changes result in more chaos, not less chaos. Changes tend toward the break down of a higher order into a lower one.

Think of the example of a person quickly typing out a document on a computer. You would expect that errors would be introduced into the typing. What is the likelihood that the errors would improve the original document? It’s possible, but rather unexpected. But the argument for pure natural evolution is that given enough time and the forces of natural selection life as we now know it has developed. Asserting that human life came about purely by random accidents starting with the genetic code of the most primitive life millions of years ago seems akin to saying that given enough time and enough typed copies a simple child’s nursery rhyme could evolve into a Shakespearean play without any plan or higher thought being involved.

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. However, the Writings for the New Church have taught us that we are not to expect to see the miracles of the Old and New Testaments performed today in the same way they were performed in the time those books were written. We read:

The reason miracles are not done at this day, as before, is that miracles compel, and take away free will in spiritual things; and from being spiritual, they make a person natural. All in the Christian world . . . can become spiritual; and they become spiritual solely from the Lord through the Word; and the faculty for this would perish if they were brought to believe through miracles. (True Christian Religion 501)

Partially based on statements such as this, a person can come to a pattern of thinking that does not believe in the Lord’s ability to affect things for good in a miraculous way even today. A person could believe in God, but still tend to view the progression of his or her life as following laws of a machine-like system. Anything that does not fit into this fixed system is believed to be a miracle that would take away spiritual freedom--the very freedom that the Lord was born into the world to reestablish.

Perhaps, though, it is too easy for us to become too limited in our view. So limited that we block out a sight of the miracles that can occur within our own lives without taking away our spiritual freedom. Perhaps it is too easy for this limited point of view to block out a sense of the Lord's presence, a sense of the Holy Spirit's presence. How does the Lord reach out to touch our lives?

What of Mary's life? The events surrounding the first Christmas were a major intervention within her life. The same is true of her husband to be, Joseph. Both of them could have denied the possibility of a miraculous conception and this state of denial would have been far more damaging than that of Zacharias's. Could the Lord's birth ever have taken place if Mary was not willing to accept the angel's words? Her firstborn was to have a continuing effect throughout her whole life. His presence was not without many events that brought a sense of awe and wonder to both Mary and Joseph. We know of at least one event that showed that raising Jesus was not always easy. At age 12, they spent three anxious days searching for Him, only to find Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers, listening and asking questions.

In addition to the way in which Jesus' birth and life intervened in Joseph and Mary's life, think of the way His presence affected the disciples. Many of them were happily going about their daily jobs when they were called to leave all behind and follow Him. While this intervention sometimes involved something of the miraculous, it also involved an element of free will. Just as Joseph and Mary could have resisted the words of the angel announcing that the Lord would be born, so also the disciples could have heard the Lord call them to follow and shook their heads and returned to their work. There were many, many others who were influenced in this same way. Many others who heard the Lord's words calling to them and had their lives profoundly influenced by what He said.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives many times each day. While we may not have anything occur in our lives that an objective observer would call miraculous, it is not true that our lives will follow some pre-established route, set by our inborn nature and directed by compelling experience of the natural world. The Lord's first birth represents the way in which He comes in any age to anyone who will receive Him. Just as the words of the angel Gabriel would have been a dramatic intervention within the happy normalcy of the future that Mary would have envisioned, so also the Lord can come to us announcing the conception of a future for us that is far different from the one our natural mind would envision. The Lord comes to us offering and promising a far different set of reactions to daily events from the ones we presently have--a different perspective, a far greater patience in some areas and a stronger resolve and commitment in others. He comes to us bringing light to areas of thoughts that we had resigned ourselves to being in deep darkness and bringing warmth to much that we might otherwise have done from need or duty.

The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin, whose name was Mary. Ancient prophecies had promised that the Messiah would be born as the child of a young woman. Several hundred years after this prophecy was given, a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, introduced a new element of the miraculous by using a word in this prophecy that was not the general one for a young woman, but rather the distinctive Greek term for "virgin." When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, the gospel of Matthew records that he quoted this prophecy according to the way it is presented in the Septuagint. The Writings for the New Church make it quite clear that this seemingly added idea is correct and even essential in our understanding of the Lord's advent.

There are two distinct reasons for the importance of a belief in the virgin birth. One reason has to do with the essential need for Jesus to be born with a natural mother but without a natural father if He was going to become our Savior and Redeemer. It was crucial for the work of Jesus that He not derive from His birth any of the internal evils that are passed on through the soul provided by the natural father in any natural conception. His soul and life came directly from the infinite God. His developing mind and life were the ever more perfect manifestation in human form of the Father and creator, our Lord and God. But it was important that He take on a natural mind at first empty of any experience and knowledge as you and I were born with. It was important that He take on the hereditary inclinations to evil that birth to a natural mother brought to His life.

The second reason for believing in the virgin birth exists because of the representation of the term virgin and what this says about how the Lord comes to us in our lives. We are told that a virgin represents someone who willing to have his or her life affected by truth. In this story, Mary represents a state of mind in each of our lives that is not controlled by self interest nor committed to a determined course of action. It is a state of mind that is open to new possibilities.

The Lord comes to us to each of us bringing the promise of a new conception of life just as the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary. He comes promising a rebirth or regeneration of life that is radically different from the one we come by naturally. It is not to the hustle and bustle of established life that He appears, but rather to those states of mind that, like the virgin Mary, look forward to something new and different and most importantly are willing to receive the conception of this new life. The life that comes to us naturally, apart from any presence of the Lord, is like a child conceived of a human father and mother. Without the Lord's presence, this life cannot have any other basis than self-interest and worldly concern. Experience may teach us to broaden this self-interest and to temper these concerns, but apart from the Lord's advent within our lives they will never rise above this level. The Lord is born within each of our lives within the states of mind that are willing to be affected by what the Word teaches--by the states of mind that are willing to rise above the prompting of our natural inclinations to be self-serving and natural in our interests, thoughts and actions. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to turn outward to recognize and serve the needs of those around us. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to recognize that natural things exist to serve the needs of mankind and creation as a whole and have their proper uses as well as their abuses.

Our preparation for the celebration of Christmas, more than any other event of the season, tends to turn people outward to others. It is a time that can help us to recognize the community of caring people that we live in. And it is a time that can remind us that many are in need--there are many people who can use our help. This help may be a matter of providing food, clothing and shelter for those have not been able to or have not yet come to be provident enough to provide them for themselves. It can be a matter of giving a hand to someone who could use some help with a job, sharing some burden with them. Christmas is a time when we give gifts that symbolize and love and friendship for others. The most lasting gifts are those that we give when we recognize the spiritual needs of others—when we recognize that, by our words and actions, we can help the Lord bring loving warmth to another person's life. We, by our words and actions, can bring the light of greater understanding to another person's life. We have the capability of helping others receive far greater blessings in life than they might otherwise. Our preparation for and celebration of Christmas can remind us of how a truly Christian life is one of wisely giving and of serving. The state of mind that receives this reminder is the one imaged by the virgin, Mary.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives, just as the angel Gabriel came to Mary. He comes telling of events that can take place, if we are willing, which far exceed anything we might picture ourselves. He promises us a new life, born within our own, but not taking its source from us. He promises the presence of the Holy Spirit within this new life. He comes with a miraculous intervention in the natural course of events. The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary are also words to us with the promise of a new life that will profoundly affect what we care about, think and do each day throughout the year. These words are the promise of a new life for each of us.

After the close of this service you are invited to take the sacrament of the Holy Supper. This act of worship represents our desire to receive the Lord’s gifts of love and wisdom within our lives, represented by our eating of the bread and drinking of the wine. There is a powerful reminder of the words of the angel Gabriel in The True Christian Religion description of this sacrament

...the Holy Supper for those who approach it worthily is a kind of guarantee and seal put on their adoption as sons of God ... the Lord is then present and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerated. (True Christian Religion 728)

As the angel Gabriel said to Mary, so the Lord would say to us, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

(რეკომენდაციები: Arcana Coelestia 1573 [1-8]; Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38)

10609. 'Also no flock or herd shall feed before this mountain' means that neither were they capable of receiving instruction concerning the interior and exterior good of the Church, worship, and the Word. This is clear from the meaning of 'flock' as interior good, and from the meaning of herd' as exterior good, both of which are dealt with in 5913, 6048, 8937; from the meaning of 'feeding' as receiving instruction, dealt with in 5201, 6277; and from the meaning of 'mountain', which at this point is Mount Horeb, as the external aspect of the Church, worship, and the Word, dealt with in 10543. From these meanings it is evident that those words mean that neither was this nation capable of receiving instruction concerning the interior and exterior good of the Church, worship, and the Word, since they stood outside and in no way within that external aspect of them. The reason why they were incapable of receiving instruction concerning it was that they were ruled by self-love and love of the world, and people ruled by those loves are totally incapable of knowing what celestial and spiritual good is, and so of knowing what the Church's good is, since this good, being Divine, is spiritual and celestial. If this good were described to them they would not begin to comprehend it, because the internal part of the mind, where perception of that good takes place, is in their case closed.

[2] That such things are meant by 'no flock or herd shall feed before the mountain' may seem to be strange to those who confine their attention to the historical meaning of the Word and think no further than this, that something involving that nation is meant by these words. Nor is anything other than this known by those unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word, in which flock or herd are not meant by 'flock or herd' but the interior and exterior good residing with a person. For what does the Word, which is Divine, have to do with a flock and herd, that is, with animals? Human beings, their worship, love, and faith, thus such things as compose the Church with them, is what the Divine Word has to do with.

[3] The fact that such things, not flock or herd, are meant by 'flock or herd' is clear from places in the Word where they are mentioned, as in David,

You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands; and You have put all things under His feet, flocks and all herds, and also the beasts of the fields. Psalms 8:6-7.

This refers to the Lord and to His power over all things in heaven and on earth, 'flocks' and 'herds' meaning forms of good, interior and exterior, that exist with people, and 'beasts' people's affections. If those creatures did not have these meanings what would be the point of describing the Lord's power, which is Divine, as power over flocks, herds, and beasts? For the meaning of 'beasts' as human affections, see in the places referred to in 9280.

[4] In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is near, and as destruction from Shaddai will it come. The beasts groan, the droves of the herd are perplexed, because they have no pasture, even the droves of the flock are made desolate. Joel 1:15, 18.

Here also 'the beasts' stands for human affections, 'the droves of the herd and of the flock' standing for forms of good, interior and exterior. For these verses refer to the Lord's Coming, this being what is meant by 'the day of Jehovah'. They also refer to the Church at that time, to its having been laid waste, that is, to its not possessing the good of love any longer, nor the good of faith, these being what 'beasts', 'herds', and 'flocks' mean. If they did not mean those things what would be the point of saying that the beasts would groan on that day, the droves of the herd would be perplexed, and the droves of the flock would be made desolate? What would all this have to do with the Church? Their having no pasture at that time means that no truth is present in which they may receive instruction.

[5] In Jeremiah,

From our youth shame is devouring the work of our fathers - their flocks and their herds, and their sons and their daughters. Jeremiah 3:24.

Here also 'flocks' and 'herds' mean the Church's forms of good, which are those of love and faith, interior and exterior ones.

[6] In Isaiah,

I will bring forth seed from Jacob, and from Judah the heir of My mountains. Then Sharon will be the dwelling-place of the flock, and the Valley of Achor the place for the herd to lie down ¹ , for My people who have sought Me. Isaiah 65:9-10.

'Jacob' and 'Judah' here are not used to mean the people of Jacob and Judah but the external and internal celestial Church, 'Jacob' the external and 'Judah' the internal. The internal good of that Church is meant by 'the dwelling-place of the flock' and the external good by 'the place for the herd to lie down', 'Sharon' being the internal part [of that Church], where this good resides, and 'the Valley of Achor' the external part. The fact that 'Sharon' means the internal part of the celestial Church is clear from the places where Sharon is mentioned, as in Isaiah 33:9; 35:2; and the fact that 'the Valley of Achor' means the external part of that Church is clear in Hosea 2:15.

[7] In Hosea,

Israel, Ephraim, and Judah will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah, and they will not find [Him]. Hosea 5:5, 6.

Here also 'flocks' and 'herds' mean the interior and exterior things with those who should be understood by 'Israel, Ephraim, and Judah'. If they did not mean those things what would be the point of saying that these three would go with their flocks and herds to seek Jehovah?

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