Monthly Archives: December 2014

First Christmas

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One day out of the blue (rather, out of heaven), the angel Gabriel stood in front of a very young woman. If it weren’t enough of a shock for a tall handsome angel to appear out of nowhere, he then announced to Mary, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
She, a virgin engaged to be married, was going to become pregnant with God’s son. Questions raced through her mind. “How in the world is that supposed to happen? How am I going to explain this one, and who will believe me? This changes everything!”
After learning how the impossible was going to happen, she looked up at Gabriel and simply replied, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.” The angel then vanished with a smile.
In response to her absolute surrender, the mighty power of God moved upon her and the glory cloud of His Presence overshadowed her. In that private moment, heaven’s most astounding miracle materialized in secret – hidden in the womb of Mary and obscured by a cloud of glory.
Her heart was overwhelmed by the joy of His Presence and enveloped with His peace. Deity became two cells, then four cells, then eight, and soon the tiny heart of God’s Son began beating and circulating the atoning blood. All the fullness of Deity inhabited the humanity of a baby.
As the days of her pregnancy stretched on, she pondered all these things and treasured them in her heart. She keep turning the incredible message of the angel over and over in her mind – “the Most High God favors me, and I bear His Son…the King!”
While she and Joseph (who received his own personal message from the angel) were in Bethlehem to be registered for the census, the days were accomplished for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Far above the lowly stable, in the black of the night, stood a star as a bright sentinel over the King.
Mary sat in the hay tenderly cradling Jesus under the gaze of a few animals. She counted ten little fingers and ten little toes and marveled at his tiny little fingernails. She held her newborn baby boy…she held the Ancient of Days, the One who named the stars, and she looked in wonder into the eyes of her Creator – the very eyes of very God himself. And they called him Immanuel which means, “God with us.” And so, the light of the world dawned in the darkness of a stable.
The only sounds in the night were the breathing of the animals and an occasional switch of a tail. A cool breeze rustled the hay and caressed the tiny face of God then slipped out into the night whispering the miraculous birth of the King.
An ecstatic multitude of the heavenly host crowded around the portal anxious to charge through and announce the greatest news ever to be proclaimed. Gabriel gestured for silence and for some much needed angelic composure. Then he slipped through the portal and stood before a small group of astonished shepherds. The luminous angel told of the birth of their Messiah.
Meanwhile in the other realm, the angelic order was once more about to disintegrate. The angelic host couldn’t take it any longer and pushed their way through the portal. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men.”
The stunned shepherds rushed to Bethlehem and found Joseph and Mary in the stable. The scruffy men knelt in the hay before a manger that held God incarnate, the hope of humanity. In that humble hallowed place, they worshipped their Savior and their King.
God so loved us that he opened the treasury of heaven and gave his most precious gift – his only Son wrapped in human flesh. Even now, God draws us to the cradle of his humanity and overwhelms us with the glory of His Deity. How can we not fall to our knees in worship?
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
 

The concept of ecstatic angels was taken from Gene Edwards, The Birth, the Chronicles of the Door, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1991.
Scriptures used: Luke 1 and 2, Isaiah 9:6

 

How Far Can God Throw?

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Last week as I reflected on yet another birthday, I pondered God’s gifts to me. The first one He brought to the forefront of my mind was forgiveness. He led me to one of my favorite forgiveness promises – I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34) – and He underscored the last phrase. It’s beyond my ability to comprehend, but His all-knowing mind chooses to delete my sins and never retrieve them….ever. God isn’t forgetful. The Ancient of Days hasn’t misplaced them. He purposefully and irretrievably removes my sin from His mind washing them away with His own blood.
From Jeremiah, He took me to other treasured places of forgiveness: Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 38:7; 43:25; and 44:22. He drew pictures of unreachable unsearchable distances, of blotted stains and vanishing mists. Then He took me to a new place in Micah 7, and I fell in love all over again.
This final chapter of Micah is set within the context of sin and guilt then culminates magnificently with forgiveness and love…
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives…? (verse 18)
Who is this God that fully pardons at no cost to me? All other gods roaming the planet and all those I place before Him are slave masters that imprison and condemn. There is no God like our God who placed all our sin on His Son and condemned and judged it once and for all.
You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (verse 19).
I love the Hebrew word for compassion – racham. It’s a deep stirring of love and tender affection. When God looks at me, He is moved in His core with deep love even when I’m most unlovable and prickly. I can never exhaust His love, and His compassion for me never fails or falters – it’s brand new every morning. So, I drag myself out of bed and revel in the freshness of His racham.
Picture God walking on your sin with complete disregard then hurling the whole and totality of it into the depths of the sea. How far can God throw? To the bottomless depths of forgiven and forgotten and out of existence forever. And He will never dredge them up…so, why do we?