GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY

December 17, 2009

It punctures my ego (which is often ripe for deflation) to be researching for a message and to find that this same message has already been written and in a much better way than I could hope to myself.  That was the case here.  I found this quote from Madeleine L’Engle, the author of A Wrinkle in Time, and I just had to share it.  It originally appeared in her book, Bright Evening Star.  I hope you’ll spend some time dwelling on it this morning in preparation for a time of worship:

“Don’t try to explain the incarnation to me!  It is further from being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy.  It is love, God’s limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine.

Was there a moment, known only to God when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love in to the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?

Power. Greater power than we can imagine, abandoned, as the Word knew the powerlessness of the unborn child, still unformed, taking up almost no space in the great ocean of amniotic fluid, unseeing, unhearing, unknowing.  Slowly growing, as any human embryo grows, arms and legs and a head, eyes, mouth, nose, slowly swimming into life until the ocean in the womb is no longer large enough, and it is time for birth.

Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ the Maker of the universe or perhaps many universes, willingly and lovingly leaving all that power and coming to this poor, sin-filled planet to live with us for a few years to show us what we ought to be and could be.  Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God’s image.”

Posted by NCOC | Filed Under Amen Corner, Articles 

Comments

One Response to “GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY”

  1. Tom Hubert on December 17th, 2009 8:44 pm

    That’s a great article Robert. I am sorry you feel deflated. :-)

    I just find it amazing that God allowed Jesus, who was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2), to come into this world as a baby instead of materializing him (in front of all) in the form of a full grown adult like some Star Trek episode (Beam me down Scotty). It is nothing short of amazing that God would have Jesus abandon all power to actually experience the human side of things along with the growing pains that you and I experienced from toddler up to adulthood. He passed through the usual stages of physical development, learning to walk, talk, play, and work. Because of this Jesus can sympathize with us in every stage of our growth. Although, I still have a hard time imagining Jesus playing with his friends getting skinned knees and elbows and coming home happy but bloody. And then what about girlfriends? No woman was ever betrothed to him. Jesus and his family realized that he had a special calling which would make marriage quite difficult anyway. So marriage and child rearing were the only two things that I can think of in which Jesus might not have experienced on the “human side” of things. Still, as Jesus was growing up, he surely learned from the mountains and lakes, the birds and flowers, the storms, the sunshine, and everything he saw or heard. All these were lessons for him. How did he become filled with wisdom? Wisdom no doubt came by seeing something to learn in everything around him and to be willing to learn the lessons. So I guess in a way, I guess you can say he experienced everything we have experienced and then some.

    Finally, those of us who are committed Christians believe that Jesus Christ lived a life without sin. But we also believe that He was a real, genuine human being. How to reconcile those two beliefs? Is a bit of mischievousness (that hurts no one) sinful? I think it’s entirely likely that the youth of Jesus contained some of the typical incidents and attitudes of childhood. Still I it is my belief that Almighty God can distinguish playful jests from genuine blasphemy.
    I am quite certain that God has a sense of humor. After all, He made me.

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