As Ilalia and I prepare to experience our first Christmas with Tyson, I wanted to share with you a simple but profound message we heard in a sermon last weekend. I have heard the Christmas story recounted many times over, but I had never stopped to look at it from the following perspective.
Jesus is God in the flesh. He humbled himself to be born in Bethlehem as a baby, God taking on flesh. God became a baby. Born through the normal birth process, wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger. God, the one who spoke the universe into existence, couldn't even speak an intelligent word. God, the one who holds the stars in their places, couldn't even change his own diaper. God, the one who controls the Heavens, couldn't even control his own movements. God in a body; not just any body, but the body of a human baby.
God chose to enter this world in simple humility.
Imagine you were God and you were coming into this world:
- Would you choose a backwater area like Israel, or the gold and glitter of Rome, the most famous city in the world of its day in time?
- Would you choose a little, out of the way town like Bethlehem, or the capital city of Jerusalem?
- Would you choose a nobody carpenter to be your father, or a king to be your father?
- Would you choose a young, country girl or a well-bred and educated princess to be your mother?
- Would you choose a manger in a stall, in a shed behind an inn, or a lavishly equipped palace nursery?
- Would you announce it to a group of outcast sheppards on an obscure hillside outside of Bethlehem, or with a worldwide trumpet blast?
I will leave you with a sample of one of our favorite modern Christmas songs, "I Celebrate The Day", by Relient K (click on the link for the full song). We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and we pray that you will recognize and celebrate the true reason for the season, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Well said, Adam. Praise God for His greatest gift to us... His Son. I imagine it's a much different perspective still, once you become a parent, to think of giving up your son. For God to make those choices to send His Son (for Him to come here Himself) into that exact situation.
ReplyDeleteDavid sang that Relient K song at Chandler's Christmas Eve Service... The stage was dark, he was sitting down at the back of the stage with the band - all was blacked out except for the screen that projected similar clips from the Nativity Story with the lyrics to the song displayed at the bottom. It was moving, and David did a great job!