Into a world of performance based thinkers came a Babe deserved by no one. Born into darkness, He shed the light of the truth of God’s grace upon a world full of people who were enamored with themselves. So extreme was even the concept of Him that from the time of His birth, men set out to kill Him in order to maintain the status quo: self-centered ungodliness that ruled men’s souls.
From the very beginning, men pitted themselves against one another. Brother put down brother in a constant battle of unending comparisons. A question raged within them all: Who among them was better than the others? Who was the “most deserving” of them all?
The question was unanswerable, for men kept toppling each other in attempts to get ahead—to have their own moments of “greatness” at the expense of others. Not a one of them was any “better” than any other, and each one proved so without prompting.
Then along came the Babe who caught the world off guard with His completely Selfless purpose. Born greatest of all men, He grew to do in the flesh the theretofore unthinkable: He purposefully laid down His every right for the welfare of all. He raised up the undeserving by laying down the life to which He alone had full rights.
His humblest of all sacrifices literally turned men’s wrong thinking right-side out. Shifting their inward self-focus outward in expanded concern for others, His decision defined right thinking.
The Babe will always embody that which mankind needs most: new birth into an eternity of mercy and grace. Engrained in the body and blood of the Babe, together they manifest perfect love that fully meets all need. Though the Babe is completely undeserved, there He is anyway, eternally offering life in a way that rightly brings us to our knees while lifting Him ever-higher.
So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.
(Isaiah 5:15-16)
May we all be blessed with the true humility that accompanies growing awareness of His holiness.
Cathy Scott
Christmas 2015