V is for Visit
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” Luke 1:68
Christmas seems to be a time for visits. Sometimes we travel and visit people, and at other times people might come and visit you or me. Even around the time of Jesus’ birth there was a lot of visiting. Can you remember who came and visited? Angels visited Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, and the shepherds. Mary visited Elizabeth. The shepherds and the wise men visited Jesus. But the most unlikely and important visit was the visit made by God through Jesus Christ to earth.
Zechariah begins his song of praise to God with the verse above, in which he praises God and rejoices in God for coming to visit and redeem his people. If you continue to read the following verses in Luke 1 (verses 69-79), you will see that Zechariah is so overjoyed because God is fulfilling promises that he made a long time ago through his prophets. He promised to come and save his people from their sins.
God is also fulfilling older promises that he made in his covenant with Abraham, to bless the whole world through the children of Abraham. Jesus is that child of Abraham, a descendant in the line of Abraham. God sent Jesus to keep the promises he made hundreds and hundreds of years before. Throughout all those years, God was preparing his people for this one, great, highly anticipated visit to our world through Jesus Christ. And Zechariah realized that God’s promise was finally going to be fulfilled. Yes! Jesus, welcome to our world! Thank you for coming to free us from our sins!
I Commend Joy! 