God Incarnate

This Christmas season was interesting for us in many ways. The snow and cold make it easier to get into the holiday spirit, but with our San Diego bison delivery when it was, we were focused on that and not able to focus on Christmas until just a week or so ago.

We have all the usual Christmas stories that we read each year and the kids laugh at me because I BLUBBER all the way through them. But this year I made it all the way through "The Crippled Lamb" without even crying (okay, so it IS a cute story and I did get just a tiny bit choked up, but really just a TINY bit). I was almost indignant and cynical about them this year. Christmas isn't about some forlorn little lamb keeping baby Jesus warm. Not that there is anything wrong with those stories, but they are just sentimental stories that keep us in the "feel good, warm fuzzies" of the season and keep our eyes off of the importance of what really happened that night so long ago when the gospel came to Earth. Amazing. The gospel always existed, the plan was always there, but that night when the angels proclaimed that they had "tidings of great joy that would be for all people", they meant what they said. The plan was set in motion and life on Earth would never be the same. They brought the best news ever : A Savior, a bridge to God, hope, sin forgiven not just covered, real grace. "In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made..... And the WORD became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." WOW. That is some serious stuff to chew on. How could He? Why would He? The great God of heaven and Earth, the eternal God, the sovereign God of the ages came to Earth to redeem His people.

Christmas is such fun. I love the decorating, the baking, the preparations, the family traditions, the gift-giving, the gift-getting, the music, all the fun things that go on, everything. But they mean nothing compared to what God gave us in Jesus' birth. That truly is something to celebrate.