The Lord Is With Thee

By Tammy Lacock

“And the angel came unto her, and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28 KJV)

Warren Litzman encourages us to be “see-throughers,” seeing Christ through all the elements of Christmas. The tree represents the Life of Christ; lights represent the star lighting up the sky and leading the wise men to Christ; and presents and Santa Claus represents God the Giver of His Son. Christmas represents the spirit of giving, Christ becoming one of us only to give His life for us. As believers, we must see through everything in life to Christ, not just at Christmas but every day. Christ isn’t just the reason for the season, but the reason for everything. 

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 KJV)

Warren goes on to show how the miracle of Mary as a vessel bearing Jesus in her is a foreshadow of the miracle of God placing Christ IN us when we believe on Him as Savior. Just as God finds favor with Mary, God finds favor with us, and specifically to believers that follow the apostle Paul’s revelation that Christ lives IN us now. 

How hard must it have been for Mary to know that the Savior of the world would be born through her?

What a miracle! And yet, who could she tell? How would she tell Joseph who she was not yet married to? How did a poor 14-year-old girl, with no education, go through 9 months keeping this secret? By coming to the knowledge that she was favored by God, she found comfort. Likewise, Warren says, how hard it can be for us to reveal to others Christ living IN us. We, too, find ourselves keeping it a secret even if we don’t want to. Christ living IN the believer was revealed to the Apostle Paul, yet it didn’t catch on in the early church, and it still has yet to catch on in our churches today. For those of us that do know, we can find comfort in knowing God’s favor didn’t stop with Mary. He chose us and revealed to us that the Lord is with us, too. Christ alive IN us! Our hope of glory! (Col. 1:27)