Sunday, December 27, 2009
I have found especially meaningful this Christmas the spiritual truth that in Jesus, God came to live with us. "His name shall be called Emmanuel." What an idea! How crazy this must have been to those who first heard the prophesy and those to whom the angels proclaimed Jesus' arrival. That God, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, would so limit Himself to human flesh, human knowledge, human experience to live among His creation. But that is the miracle and the mystery that we celebrate on Christmas. That is the truth we ponder during the advent season. That God became man in Jesus Christ to point His precious children to the Kingdom of Heaven.
I'm not sure exactly why this reality has so impressed itself upon me this year. Earlier I wrote about wanting to be more intentional about reflecting on the Truths of the season. And I believe that this is one way God has honored that desire. (Though I did not follow through as well as I hoped!) I do not fully comprehend the great love that produced this act of self-limitation on God's part, but it is delightful to be wrapped in such love. There is a tension between the mystery and the known. God revealed Himself to us in a humble birth and life of ministry and teaching. But there is mystery, too, in how and why God chose to limit Himself and save His people in this way, to be Emmanuel.
It is my hope that I can continue to ponder this truth in my heart, to wait in anticipation as God reveals more to me, in the same way Mary and so many others waited in anticipation of the Promised One who would be King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Wonderful Counselor in a way so unexpected, so humble and yet so powerful -- as "God with us."
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