Behold, the virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).
This past Thanksgiving weekend my family and I visited my
mom, who lives over an hour away. As we were in her living room, she came
running down the hallway shouting “Look out the window. Quick!” We peeked out
the window and saw a crane standing by the creek. I am talking about the bird
crane, by the way. Not the big construction crane. However, my boys would have
been more than ecstatic to see the latter. Anyway, my mom, sons, and myself tip
toed out the front door to take a peek at the sight. This thing was HUGE. It
was probably as big as my six year old and its wingspan taller than me. My four
year old, however, couldn’t see it. I kept telling him which direction to look,
but he still had no idea in which direction to go. So I stooped down to his eye
level and pointed my finger right before his eyes in the direction of the
crane. About the time that he saw it, it flew off. This event reminds me of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. For much of the Old Testament years the Israelites strayed and turned away from God. Then they came back. Then they strayed again and so on. From their grumbling and disbelief in the wilderness (Numbers 14), to their on and off idolatry during the times of the prophets, they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). They were being tossed to and fro in their theology (Ephesians 4:14). They were accustomed to pagan idolatry, seeing as this was what surrounded them constantly. This explains their demand to see a physical image of God that they could worship (the golden calf, Exodus 32). Then there was the “Intertestamental Period”. This was 400 years of silence, SILENCE! There were no revelations or prophecies from God. How deafening was this silence! How many generations passed who remembered the last of the prophets? All that was left were stories of what God did, and said, to their ancestors. Silence.
Then that silence was broken when John the Baptist came upon the scene and ushered in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save us from our sins, but also to restore a new covenant with us that we may have a closer (and holier) walk with God. Through His example, we can know the nature of our God. We can know how to love. To love our neighbor. To love our Savior.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian (Galatians 3:23-25). Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God (Romans 7:4). Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2).
My stooping down to my son’s level to point out to him what he wanted to see is much like God coming down to our level (veiled in the flesh of Christ) to show us what we needed to see- a saving faith.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him (1 John 4:9).
Merry Christmas and God bless!