Merry Christmas from ThrivingBranch

By now, many of us have heard countless messages of the Christmas story; how Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

The phenomenon of familiarity has set in for us… where we’ve heard it so many times, we start to adopt the perspective of “yeah, I’ve heard that before” and it starts to lose its freshness— not in actuality, but in our minds. We want something new, something unique.

So this Christmas, allow me to offer you a fresh perspective of what God is placing in my mind at the close of this year.

Christmas is the beginning of the new thing, and it came in a new and unexpected way:

• Mary didn’t know what to expect
• Joseph was confused and initially wanted to quietly put Mary away
• Israel was looking for a political ruler to free them from Rome

No-one truly expected God to come into the world the way that he did. But even so this is only the beginning. The new thing that God ultimately would accomplish through Jesus is, in-fact the new covenant. This is mentioned repeatedly in scriptures such as Isaiah 43:19, Jeremiah 31:22, Ezekiel 36:26, 2^nd Corinthians 5:17 and others.

Jesus’ entry into the world was something that no-one expected, and likewise, the new covenant that he ushered in was also completely unexpected. He set the captives free, but not primarily politically as Israel expected, but he set people free from the captivity of sin, shame, and death.

He came and conquered death once and for all. Accomplishing something that none of us could ever do. He finished the old covenant righteously by being the ultimate eternal sacrifice for sin. (Jeremiah 31:31, Hebrews 8:8, 2^nd Corinthians 3:6, Romans 11:27)

Jesus, and the new covenant he brought is the ultimate Christmas gift for everyone who believes, because it is through the new covenant of grace in Christ that every other blessing is received— even eternal life itself.

I wish you a blessed Christmas, and a thriving new year in 2026.

—Jim