Advent is the season where we meditate on the child born of a virgin, lying in a manger, and is Emmanuel, God with us. We look back and remember that He came and He will come again. We think about the reality of God becoming flesh and dwelling among men to appease the Father's wrath, obey Him, and to take that wrath upon Him for those He has cast His favor on. In becoming flesh He daily smelled, touched, and walked among the deepest sin and unholiness of humankind. He who had never been touched by sin, He who knew no sin dwelt among sin for 33 years, that alone would be a sacrifice for the holy Son of God. When He was born in Bethlehem, He also was here to fulfill a mission, that would ultimately prove that He was the Emmanuel. He actually had has His mission to die an excruciating death of a criminal, to be forsaken by God and us, and to be crushed by the weight of taking our sins upon Himself. His life was culminated in death. Of course, we know the end of the story, the story of the resurrection, but to think that because He died, we do not have to, is an amazing love story.
The older I get the more suffering I not only myself experience, but I also experience it along with those that I love. Life doesn't always seem to have a happy ending. We, meaning I, can tend to want to wallow in the injustice of it all. Then I am reminded of the culmination, the climax, the ultimate injustice of all time, Christ, the perfect Son of God hanging on a tree. Karen, my seventeen year old, and I were having a conversation the other day about teens and parents allowing their children to pretty much do whatever they want to, sometimes under their very nose. I was appalled at this, and she said, "Mom, why should you be surprised, they aren't Christians, they don't know any better, and they are mostly consumed by their own selfishness." She reminded me that only by the grace of God "go I." Only because God took on my sin am I even aware of the nature of sin. I shouldn't be surprised when in this world we will have tribulation, and I feel forsaken.
Psalm 22:1-2
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
Christ is our pattern. He was forsaken so that we might not be. Although, in this world of tribulation we will experience times when we feel forsaken and we will cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" At those times ask God to give you the grace to look upon Immanuel, our God is with us, in our brokenness, our aloneness. He came as a baby to dwell among us, and to be forsaken by His Father, so we will never be alone or ultimately forsaken in Hell. He cried the "roar" and groaned to desperate cry of the abandoned, experienced Hell, so we wouldn't have to. That's Emmanuel! "Rejoice, Rejoice Emmanuel, has come to us O Israel."
Rejoicing this day....................Lynn
4 comments:
It's an amazing thing that He bore the very shame and rejection that belongs to me.
I was the kind of parent you're talking about for many years. I was so caught up in my own emotional pain and depression that I couldn't even see how I was failing my kids. Just last night my son mentioned in passing an incident I don't even remember - a year he never got a birthday present from me because I'd spent four days locked in my room, too depressed to get out of bed. I think, Dear God, how could I have done such a thing to my little boy? Yet that was me before Christ - a person I can barely stand to think about now. Thank God for the new life that is in Christ Jesus.
It really is amazing, to think that if God had not lavished His love on us, even in showing us our depravity and need for Him, that we would be just as lost as the rest of the world. He is truly amazing! And I am constantly overwhelmed at the drastic lengths that He goes to, to make us His, and to make us acceptable to the Father. There is no greater love than that of Immanuel! Thanks Ms. Lynn for the reminder!
So very well said Lynn, "At those times ask God to give you the grace to look upon Immanuel, our God is with us, in our brokenness, our aloneness. He came as a baby to dwell among us, and to be forsaken by His Father, so we will never be alone or ultimately forsaken in Hell."
We have much to rejoice in!
Your Kenny is wise beyond her years...and how like God to speak to us through our children.
Enjoyed this advent devotional!
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