Adventure - Day 16

“And the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
John 1: 14, NLT

“She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’).”
Isaiah 7: 14b, NLT

It may take us an eternity to wrap our brains around the idea of a God who would become one of His creation to save that creation from a rebellion of their own choosing.  The idea of the Holy Uncreated One becoming Created is more than my mind can fully comprehend.

We quoted part of this next quote about the incarnation of Christ earlier, from twentieth century theologian, J. I. Packer, put here it is in it’s entirety:

“God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. . . . The babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”

I think the angels knew just how much the Father loved all of His creation, long before the incarnation ever took place.  They saw how He looked at us that first day He breathed life into the mound of dirt, they were witnesses to how much His heart broke at our rebellion, and know they had front row seats to the most amazing act of love ever enacted.  God was willing to leave their realm of heaven to come to this broken, dark, and pain-riddled earth, taking the incredible risk to put it all on the line, all because of His love for us.  The angels couldn’t help but celebrate and sing to this King of all Kings.

But I also wonder how much of the plan they knew.  Did they know what He ultimately came to do?  Did they know in order to go through with said plan, He’d have to endure severing the relationship of the Holy Trinity?  What would that do to Him?  What would that do to them?

If they did know, that event was in the future.  On the night of His birth, they sang and they worshipped and they shared the good news that the Savior was born.  That’s news we all need to be reminded of, especially on our dark nights.

JOURNAL

1. What does it mean to you that the God of the universe couldn’t imagine eternity without you, so He became like you, to save you?
2. Imagine being Mary, holding the God of the universe in your hands. What would that be like?
3. Put yourself in the sandals of the shepherds.  What do you see? What does the singing sound like?