JUST LIKE YOU AND ME

Scripture for the day: Romans 8:3-4 God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent His own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the las would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Thought for the day: Le deseo una Feliz Navidad y un Año Nuevo muy bendecido, llenos del amor del dios y de paz. Unless you are Spanish or have learned to speak and read Spanish, you have no idea what I’ve just said to you.

Σας εύχομαι πολύ Καλά Χριστούγεννα και μια καλή χρονιά που γεμίζουν με την αγάπη και την ειρήνη του Θεού. Again, unless you are Greek, or have learned the language, the above sentence is entirely meaningless to you. Let’s try one more, shall we?

Ik wens u zeer vrolijke Kerstmis en een gelukkig Nieuw Jaar dat met de liefde en de vrede van de God wordt gevuld. Is anyone out there familiar with the language of the Dutch? No? Then how on earth can you hope to get the meaning of what I’ve just written? Maybe we should try German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Swahili, French, Portuguese, or any of a hundred other languages I could have chosen? Would the result have been any better? Of course not; at least not for the vast majority of us. We still would have no idea what the message was supposed to be.

Here’s the thing; none of us speak the language of heaven. We were born fallen creatures and have found ourselves so far removed from the God of heaven that we can’t even hope to understand Him or respond to Him as we ought. There has become such a disconnect between us that we may as well be from different universes. That being true, how does He get through to us? What avenue is left for Him to communicate His love and the Good News of hope and reconciliation to His creation?

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all his opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his very kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist- no one dared resist him. But would she love him? She would say she loved him of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she left behind. Would she be happy at his side? How could he know?

If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross over the gulf between them.

The king, convinced he could not elevate the maiden without crushing her freedom, resolved to descend. He clothed himself as a beggar and approached her cottage incognito, with a worn cloak fluttering loosely about him. He renounced the throne to win her hand.

Has the Savior done any less? He could have split the Eastern sky (as He someday will) and descended to immediately bring the entire world under His control. He could have crushed (as He someday will) any and all opposition, at any time He chose. But He didn’t want a people who would serve Him out of fear or because of His great majesty and power. He wanted, as He still wants today, a people who serve Him out of love because He first loved them. And the only way to achieve that goal was to renounce His throne (Phil. 2:6-8) in order to win our love.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Now, go take on your world. - Bill