God, deserving everything yet coming to us in humility. Coming, not for the mighty but the weak. Coming, not amid fanfare but quietly, peacefully. Coming not to wage war against the nations but to save the nations. To carry our burdens, our load, our sins upon his back.
The common thread running through his family line is one of redemption. Finding worth in the worthless. Pouring grace upon the unworthy. Loving the less-than.
Everyday Marys render themselves available to God, knowing their greatest gift to Him is not in the ‘being’ but in the surrender.
Peace is not the absence of problems. Peace is a person, Jesus Christ Himself.
Jesus reflected the Father, revealing to humanity a God who loves deeply and personally. He is our Abba, our Daddy, the One we can run to anytime, anywhere.
Christmas is the visible manifestation of God’s unconditional love. The Creator comes to dwell among the created; Love Himself, willing to suffer rejection for the sake of our souls. Might confined to a manger. Creator curtailed to the form of a child. The paradox of grace as the Almighty indwells the womb He created and walks the earth He brought into being.
In Christ, we have a Wonderful Counselor. Not just a source of wisdom but Wisdom Himself. Not just someone who will listen and offer wisdom, but a God who came down from heaven to live among us, walk alongside us, carry our burdens, and stay with us through every struggle and hardship.
Immanuel – God’s answer to the lonely, the outcast, the shunned, the rejected, the ostracized. Immanuel – God’s promise that we will never be alone. Immanuel – God before us, behind us, beside us, within us – it doesn’t get any more personal than that.
God’s plan wasn’t political, it was spiritual. God sent His Son, Jesus, to be our Horn of Salvation. Through His death on the cross, He would liberate all who believed in Him from the oppression of sin.
The vastness of God’s love is so immense He took on human form and came in person rather than send a proxy. Love Himself, in the flesh, to live what we live, to endure what we endure, to be the sacrificial lamb in our place.
