I love Christmas music. My wife, Jeanna, loves it more. I think she would listen to it year round. The words and music of all the great Christmas classics connect us to a sense of hope and wonder. They have a way of touching us deeply.
When you listen to Christmas music, have you noticed the lack of new Christmas songs that convey the true Gospel message? Very few are being written today. But of those that have been released, one stands out — Mark Lowry’s beautiful Christmas song, Mary Did You Know. It is hard for me to listen to this song without shedding a tear.
There are so many wonderful lines in the song. The one that affects me most deeply is this: “Did you know your baby has come to make you new?” And then, there is the chorus: “When you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.”
Did Mary know?
The angel told her that her baby would be great, that he was the Son of the most high, that he would occupy David’s throne and that his reign would have no end. The angel told Joseph his name would be Immanuel which means “God with us.” And he told the shepherds that Jesus was the Savior, Christ the Lord.
Still, you have to wonder, did Mary know that Jesus was indeed God in the flesh? Did she know that when she kissed Jesus, she had kissed the face of God?
The question the song asks of Mary gives rise to a question for us – Christian, do you know?
Christian, do you know that Christ has made you new? This truth escaped me for many years. I looked at Christianity as the ultimate self-improvement program. Christ did not come to make us better. He came to make us new. Paul said it best. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
But how are we made new? By grace through faith, Jesus makes us alive “through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In his letter to the Colossians, Paul describes this truth as “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
Jesus Christ, God of the universe, lives in you. He is with you right now. He is bigger than any problem you may be facing and He has promised: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you ” (Hebrews 13:5).
Christian, do you know?
