Emanuel--God With Us

Happy Birthday, Jesus.

As I remember your birth, I wonder at the great love that led you to leave the throne room of heaven to become one with us. . .

Not one of us, but one WITH us. . .

Through your birth, you invited us into the "community" which is the Trinity, to share life with our God.

Through your life, you taught us how to walk with you daily.

Through your death, you enabled us to once again to be united with the Godhead through the Holy Spirit.  

And through your resurrection you give us the hope of what it will be like to one day fully live out this unity with You, Your Father and Your Spirit for all eternity.

It seems I cannot contemplate your birth except through the prism of your life, death and resurrection.

It is difficult understand the self-sacrificing love which hung on the cross for three hours, but I can imagine what it cost you to do this.

However, I cannot even begin to imagine, with my time and space bound mind, what it was like for You, the Lord God of the Universe, to take on the confines of a human body--with all its limitations and infirmities. What it cost You to come to us as one of us. To manifest for us the Godhead in a manner with which we mere humans can relate.  To sacrifice infinity for morality to become like us in all things, save sin.

I struggle to imagine what it was like for the God of All Power to humble himself to come as a totally helpless and dependent babe.  For the Word of God to become of an infant whose only expression is to cry out in need.  For Him who holds all authority in heaven and on earth to submit  Himself to the authority of two frail humans such as Mary and Joseph.

As I gaze at the sweet baby in the manager, I stand in awe once again.  Not solely at the miracle in which God became man, but also at the outrageous love that would compel You to do so.

Thank you, Jesus, for becoming one with us, your ultimate gift to us.  Let me learn from You to live in the self-emptying love which brought You to us that first Christmas morn.  Let me live in that love today, and forever.  Amen.