Saturday, December 21, 2013
Luke 2:7 ... wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
AND SO IT WAS
It may be difficult for the human mind to imagine God in a stable. If we had all power in heaven and on earth, we would want much more comfortable surroundings.
Do you think Mary ever wondered if this could really be God's Son when God did not seem to give Him much in the way of presents? But He had given her a greater gift! As her cousin Elizabeth had put it: "Blessed is she who has BELIEVED that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" This is also the gift He has given to you by the Word of His Spirit.
And what a gift it is! By faith we get a glimmer of how great God's LOVE for us must be. Like the soldier who used his own body to shield his comrades from enemy fire, so our Savior throws Himself into poverty and lowliness, mockery and death, that He might redeem us all.
We see God's POWER, as He keeps all the promises of the ages through a "helpless" baby. We do not "make" Christmas, but can only rejoice in God's doings that day.
That Child came to give His life as the ransom for us all, just what we needed! While He lies in lowliness, His GLORY is shining on some shepherds out in the field, who could not be home for Christmas. And it shines on us, too, leading us to Bethlehem. How great to be included in that stable! The world's inn is crowded. But we will go to the manger, and there find a great company standing, "quiet and forgiven, the joy of heaven in their hearts, and the peace of God on their faces" (O. P. Kretzmann).
