Love Wrapped in Flesh

Word became flesh.

INCARNATION

The Flesh-wearing Word lived and breathed and moved among us, sharing our space-and-time existence, for a span of 33 years.  In that mere blink of history, He spanned the chasm between divine love and human desperation.

Christmas . . . His coming.  We so easily envision His birth, the praising angels, the Joy to the World, the Peace on Earth, the Good Will to Men, shepherds, wise men, drummer boys--the Christmas card comes to life in our mind's eye.  But do we rewind a little further, go back to the moment where He took off His glory like a glistening robe and left it hanging on a hook in Heaven's hallway?  Do we envision the moment He handed His crown to His Father and said, "Don't worry--I've got this!  I'll go!"  Do we reckon with the sacrifice it was for Him to limit all that He had always been to the permanent wearing of humanity, just so He could rescue us from the dragon . . . and ourselves . . . and our ugly sin?

• He, who was all-powerful, put on helplessness in the tiny, fragile-strong, soft-wrapped body of an infant.  He wanted to know how powerless we feel.
• He, who created time, accepted the limitations of being clock-bound, living on borrowed time as we do.  He wanted to experience our life of deadlines and finitude, and to know what it's like to have to hurry and be late and feel that there is never enough time.
• He, who put the machine of space and stars and planets into clockwork motion, had to learn a trade at his father's side.  He had to start from square one to learn how to put muscle and sinew and sweat, hard work and know-how to into carving and building pieces of trees into useful pieces of furniture.
• He, who is the WORD, the eternal LOGOS, came to put the great "I AM" into words little children like us could understand.

Do we know how far down He reached for us?  No, we really don't.  We can only catch glimpses and make feeble attempts to reach as high as our tippy-toes will let us to know all that He really gave up for the sheer inexplicable love of us.  His love is everything there is.  Nothing else matters.  Nothing else is of any value.

In this season of gifts and gift wrap, I pray that we would remember the very first Gift wrapped for Christmas--the Word was wrapped in flesh and given for people stuck in flesh that wasn't worth saving.  I pray too that we would  unwrap that gift, reach inside and grab ahold with both hands the LOVE He gave, the LOVE He IS, and pass it around to everyone we know.  There simply is no greater gift than this:

"So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son."  John 1:14 NLT

What part of His coming blows you away?

How will you grab ahold of His love and share it?

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~ and ~

Ann's Walking With Him community