From the Stable to the Cross

Yesterday night we drove around looking at Christmas lights in a few neighborhoods. Before we left the house I had the children color a few Christmas pictures and then I wrote a little note on them. As we drove by the houses, we looked for nativity scenes. Each time we saw a baby Jesus we stopped and put our colored pictures in their mailbox that said "thank you for displaying our first love - Jesus!"

You should have heard the kids cheer and clap as they anticipated putting their pictures in the mailbox - it was really fun! But on the night that Jesus was born there were no loud cheers and claps - he was born in a humble stable. In a humble stable God became flesh.

Think about that word "flesh" - my children regularly have boo boos where they scrape their flesh - it's their flesh that bleeds. God really came in the flesh as John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling amoung us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only."

If Jesus was not born of a virgin then he was just a special man - but it was the mix of the Holy Spirit and flesh that made him "Immanuel - God with us"(Matthew 1:23). God became one of us - human and divine. And the whole point of God being born a man was for him to reconcile man to God. He came to die - die on the cross for our sins - and then to rise again on the third day proving that he indeed is "Immanuel - God with us."

This is the real meaning of Christmas. It's not about the holiday ham and cookies, Santa and reindeer, or Barbies and transformers! It's about Jesus - coming in the flesh - he dwelt among us - that boggles my brain! And he went from the stable to the cross because of his love for you and me. Celebrate! Clap and cheer! Rejoice! And have a Merry Christmas!

Walk with the King!

Courtney

http://www.womenlivingwell.org/