Today is the Sunday of love. Next Saturday will be Christmas. Already. Seems like Halloween was just here. Thanksgiving was almost a blip. It is true what they say: time flies when you get older.
Today we celebrate love. And today in church many churches have their Christmas service, complete with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, angels, shepherds, sheep, wise men – the whole thing.
But we have to remember the reason for this whole thing: the love of Jesus. God loved the world as John 3:16 says, but 1 John 3:16 (an interesting coincidence) says that Jesus allowed it, and that he loves us too.
He would sure have to love us to do what he did. After all, he gave up being face to face with God, equality with God (Philippians 2:5-9) and became a baby. And not just a baby, but for nine months before this, he was first an embryo, then a fetus, then a baby, then born.
As Mary looked on the face of God – this screaming, squalling baby with dirty diapers – what must she have thought? At times, it must seem like a dream to her, but too many people confirmed it. First the angel, then Elizabeth her elderly cousin who was bearing John the Baptizer, the dirty smelly shepherds, then Simeon and Anna in the temple when they took the baby in for his circumcision, then last of all, the wise men with phenomenal gifts.
Giving up heaven for here. Talk about your ultimate missionary work. From the face of God to the face of Mary. What a woman she must have been for God to choose her from all the women who ever lived or will ever live. And Joseph was no slouch, either. This was the man who was going to teach the child all his values.
And he gave all heaven up for us, so that he could bring us back to God. He became a man so he could touch us. He remained sinless so that he could touch God. And through him and his sacrifice, we can touch God. There is no other way to touch God except through him (Acts 4:12).
Without him, and without the remembrance of his gift, Christmas is worthless. It is just a commercial venture, no better than any other. With him, it marks the beginning of our access to God.
I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, O my soul rejoice. Take joy my king in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.
Merry Christmas from Ella and me. Ho Ho Ho.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.