"Strengthen the Feeble Hands, Steady the Knees That Give Way."
Christmas
Before the Manger—The Garden
Dec 14th
The little baby boy cooing so mildly in the manger made of weakness and nakedness and poverty a crown. The Son of Man, the Son of God, smiling so sweetly in the manger affirmed that He had not forgotten His promises.
But before the manger—the Garden.
Our need arose in the Garden of Eden and was soothed in the Manger. Our weakness and our helpless condition begged His mercy and He did not despise our need. It was our cry He uttered at birth, and our pain He came to bear. It was we who were naked and poor—so the Son of God joined us in our misery.
Beyond the romantic sentimentality of ribbons and bows, beyond those things we want and will not get, we know and believe that God has come to be—with us. That makes all the difference on Christmas Day.
But before the manger—the Garden.
For in the Garden the human drama took a turn for the worse. In the Garden it became all too obvious that the works of our hands yield death. In the Garden our nakedness was exposed and our wickedness made known. In the Garden our sins cried out to a loving God and in His love More >
On Being Made Part III
Dec 21st
It was as though the whole universe was pressed into the size of a baby’s fist; as if eternity was forced into a moment of time; as if all goodness, grace, and love took human form; as if the All-Powerful One somehow made himself quite vulnerable; as if the all knowing one dressed himself in ignorance and walked among us. There He was, the One through whom all things were made, frail and needy, being held ever so cautiously in the crook of Mary’s arm. What do we make of the maker becoming one of the made?
It is understandable that we are being made. It makes sense that we are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory. That is because we are frail creatures, faulty and broken souls. We desperately need to be remade—God does not. It is we who have a need to be made new, a need to be made more human. It was for our sake that Christ became human, for our sake—Bethlehem!
I have many friends in many places and I love them all. But there are moments, hours, days of self doubt in which I might cling to the closest soul if they would just More >
