I remember the day we bought the old blue hatchback.  Our oldest daughter had been driving for about a year while the youngest one had completed drivers education and was counting down the weeks before her sixteenth birthday.

Both daughters, however, had decided it was no longer “cool” to be seen driving a dark green van through town.  So, by pooling their money, they came up with one half of the asking price.  While it wasn’t the prettiest car around, it was safe.  Best of all (according to them, anyway) it would be theirs!

There was only one small problem.  The car had a four speed manual transmission.  After rolling backward down a few hills, jerking through several intersections, and stalling out at every stop sign in town, the oldest girl began to develop the rhythm necessary to keep the car moving forward.

The youngest girl, however, wasn’t as lucky.  Try as she did, she just couldn’t get it.  Late one afternoon, she stalled the car again.  Only this time we were sitting on a highway with a semi-truck bearing down on us.  Guess who announced she was go to “just get out and walk!”  Suddenly everything in my well-ordered world seemed totally out of control. 

Out of control – that must have been the way Mary felt when she agreed to become the mother of Jesus.  Joseph’s reaction, the town gossip, even the legal steps that might be taken to try and condemn her were things she could not control.  Like the truck that was bearing down on that old blue hatchback, the future was coming toward her at a remarkable speed but there was nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . she could do change it or to get out of the way.  It was all in God’s hands!

As we approach Christmas, it seems like there is so much in the world that is out of control.  The future is bearing down on us and we sometimes feel helpless to change it – unless, of course, we do exactly what Mary did.  We must trust that God’s plan for the world will not be overcome by the chaos and confusion that sometimes surrounds us. 

Can you believe that God sent a baby into the world to save us?  If you do, then the light of Christmas will shine in your life and the darkness of the world will not overcome it!