Baby, Its Cold Outside

There’s nothing like holding a newborn baby at Christmastime to bring the reality of the incarnate Godhead into view. The bloody mess of childbirth, the shrill cries of new life entering the world, and a long awaited promise coming to fruition. I don’t know about you, but I tend to get lost in the miraculous aspects of Jesus, the highlights of His life on earth, but the truth is that He lived a day to day life in the midst of us measly humans. Its at times like when I’m holding my brand spanking new grandson looking down into his perfect little face and realize that once Jesus was just like that, tiny and helpless, warm and snuggly.

He grew up in a family with cousins and neighbors and friends. Living right there in the everyday stuff like chores and mealtimes. And when we catch glimpses of Him in the gospels, He’s doing miraculous things right there in the middle of the ordinary stuff. When He asked the disciples to follow Him it was more than just a sacred invitation into a new life. Peter, James and John and the rest of the boys had a front row seat to everyday Jesus. A brand new life began for each of them the moment they decided to join in His. He sat down to eat with them, He cooked them dinner, He laughed and cried with them. They were friends and I forget that sometimes. I think of Him as set apart and distant and somehow belittled by our piddly little ways of doing life. He is Holy and worthy of our adoration and praise but that cannot be a way for us to keep him at arm's length. Jesus is not cold and distant.

He became a man, and dwelt among us. When my own son was born, right over the delivery room door someone had placed a huge banner that simply stated, “Unto us a child is born…” I’ll never forget how it made me feel and to this day reminds me that Jesus chose this way to save us, to become like us and enter into this mess we made and walk around with us and die a horrendous death just so that we could go back to the way He intended it to be way back in the garden. Long ago when He created a paradise and placed man and woman in it and visited with them everyday because He enjoyed their company. He is Holy, He is worthy, He is Righteous God, but He wants to be in our ordinary everyday lives, to be real to us, a companion, a friend.

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