For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke 2:11,12 |
Dear Friends,That Christ was born in a stable surely helps us appreciate the humiliation God underwent to be our Savior. But it also shows how well God knows our human nature. All too often, our thinking is restricted by what we can observe on earth.
We are accustomed, for instance, to seeing new-born babies wrapped in sterile blankets and lying in clean cribs. So, it's easy for us to picture the lowliness of our Savior's birth. The truth, though, is that even had Christ been born in a royal palace with great fanfare, it would not have changed the reality that He emptied His divine glory and made Himself of no reputation.
The problem is, it's hard for us to grasp how degrading it was for Christ to leave heaven and become a man. Our minds cannot visualize how high and lofty God is. As a result, we subconsciously bring Him down to our level.
Thankfully, Isaiah 55:9 is helpful in this regard: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways." Note that God uses the plural word "heavens", indicating that He is not talking about the third heaven, or paradise, which again is beyond our imagination.
Most of us have flown in a plane. When we look down on earth, we can see cities or mountains, but not people. Viewed from the first heaven, people have already become too small to be seen.
Let's go higher to the second heaven. Do you remember seeing pictures of the earth taken from spacecraft flying toward the outer edge of the solar system? The earth was at first no bigger than a star, and then it disappeared from view altogether. Meaning: the earth is hardly a speck in the solar system, even as the latter is hardly a speck within the universe.
Try as they may, astronomers have yet to see the top of the outer space with their most powerful telescope. Can you now begin to realize how much higher are God's ways than ours? And yet, it was the very Creator of this vast universe that was born in Bethlehem that first Christmas night.
To become a lowly human was just the beginning of Christ's sacrifice. Eventually, He allowed Himself to be crucified. Why? To pay for the sins of all those who would believe on Him? Are you one of them? Do you know that your answer to that question literally spells the difference between heaven and hell for your eternal soul? May God give you the wisdom to put your trust in Christ as your personal Savior.
Fourth Quarter, 1995