The Christmas story hasn’t changed a bit.  Every year as I go to the Scriptures to read, study, and meditate on the passages, the words are the same.  Once I start reading them, I could almost quote the story without looking.  Over and over, year after year, it’s the exact same thing.  But it’s God’s Word!  The Word that is “quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.”  The Word that is alive, fresh, and always relevant.  So every year, without fail, those same well-known words are used by the Holy Spirit to give me something to bless, encourage, and challenge me.  This year that something is the great faith that I see throughout the Christmas story.  The faith of a young virgin who couldn’t get her mind wrapped around what was being said by that angel, but still humbly and by faith declared, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”  The faith of Joseph, the man who never speaks in Scripture, as he simply and explicitly trusted and “did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him.”  The faith of humble shepherds who “with haste” followed the angelic direction and found “Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.”  The faith of the wise men who followed that star and would not be deterred until they laid their gifts before the infant King.  And if you’ll keep reading in Luke 2, the faith of Simeon and Anna who never stopped looking for the promised Messiah and then rejoiced at His arrival.  I can see the thread of faith throughout the Christmas story.  It’s there, and it beckons me to do as they did.  To trust my Lord and His word, in spite of the impossibility of the situation.  In spite of the uncertainty of my path.  In spite of unexpected changes in plans.  In spite of the obstacles.  In spite of the seemingly endless waiting.  To have faith in spite of…anything.  That’s my Christmas meditation this year.  What’s yours?