What I Learned This Christmas
God's Work/Our Work
In Genesis, we learn of God's work: Creation. He made everything, and it was good.
God created everything - for His glory and for us. This was an act of love; God, Our Father, loved us before any of us were even born. If we hadn't sinned, we would have worked - right from the get-go - for Hid glory too. And in doing so we would have love God back.
But we, the object of His infinite love, turned our backs on Our Father, rejected Him in the worst way. We took all He gave us - Paradise - and threw it away, preferring something of our own choosing. We were tempted and gave in - immediately, with so little, if any, resistance, to that first temptation. Paradise - this Divine gift, the work of Our Father - wasn't good enough for us. We preferred our own way to His way.
So God then sends His Son to straighten things out. He comes to live among us and show us how to live. He also suffers and dies so that each of us sinners can be saved from our sins and spend eternity in heavenly splendor.
I already knew all this, before reading a verse that struck me this Christmas in a special way. Actually, it hit me right between the eyes and burrowed straight and deep into my brain and my soul. This particular verse triggered this reaction, a verse which I've read so many times before. But this time it simply startled me:
In the face of our disobedience, worse, our ingratitude, to our loving Father, He quietly sent His Son to us, His Love for us being infinite, without limit, in spite of our horrendous behavior.
He did this as we were going about our business, we who had been created by a loving Father, and who rejected our Father and His love first in the persons of our first parents Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but more specifically in our personal sins day in day out, over and over again. And into this fallen world, in the middle of the night, this greatly offended Father sends His only Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God Himself, to be born in a manger - a feeding trough for animals - in a dirty stable where animals lived. Into this mess God condescended to live among us,
Re God's work: God didn't have to fix His work. It's not that God's work wasn't perfect from the beginning. We took His work and made a mess of things. He sent His Son to fix us.
Re our work: As for our work, it's for His glory, right? We work as part of His Plan for His Creation. That's what we wake up every day to do - work for the greater glory of God.
Whatever specific work each of us does is united to all the work all around the world in giving glory to God. If we don't work with this in mind, we're wasting all our efforts.
So even though I knew all this, that verse somehow really drilled it into my brain this Christmas:
In Genesis, we learn of God's work: Creation. He made everything, and it was good.
God created everything - for His glory and for us. This was an act of love; God, Our Father, loved us before any of us were even born. If we hadn't sinned, we would have worked - right from the get-go - for Hid glory too. And in doing so we would have love God back.
But we, the object of His infinite love, turned our backs on Our Father, rejected Him in the worst way. We took all He gave us - Paradise - and threw it away, preferring something of our own choosing. We were tempted and gave in - immediately, with so little, if any, resistance, to that first temptation. Paradise - this Divine gift, the work of Our Father - wasn't good enough for us. We preferred our own way to His way.
So God then sends His Son to straighten things out. He comes to live among us and show us how to live. He also suffers and dies so that each of us sinners can be saved from our sins and spend eternity in heavenly splendor.
I already knew all this, before reading a verse that struck me this Christmas in a special way. Actually, it hit me right between the eyes and burrowed straight and deep into my brain and my soul. This particular verse triggered this reaction, a verse which I've read so many times before. But this time it simply startled me:
Whilst deep silence dwelt on all things below, and the night was in the midst of its course,
the almighty Word came down from its throne.
He did this as we were going about our business, we who had been created by a loving Father, and who rejected our Father and His love first in the persons of our first parents Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but more specifically in our personal sins day in day out, over and over again. And into this fallen world, in the middle of the night, this greatly offended Father sends His only Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God Himself, to be born in a manger - a feeding trough for animals - in a dirty stable where animals lived. Into this mess God condescended to live among us,
Re God's work: God didn't have to fix His work. It's not that God's work wasn't perfect from the beginning. We took His work and made a mess of things. He sent His Son to fix us.
Re our work: As for our work, it's for His glory, right? We work as part of His Plan for His Creation. That's what we wake up every day to do - work for the greater glory of God.
Whatever specific work each of us does is united to all the work all around the world in giving glory to God. If we don't work with this in mind, we're wasting all our efforts.
So even though I knew all this, that verse somehow really drilled it into my brain this Christmas:
Whilst deep silence dwelt on all things below, and the night was in the midst of its course,
the almighty Word came down from its throne.
Can any of us ever just go about our business like this never happened? No way, right?
Comments