2 Corinthians 5:19&20 - "...God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself...Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us..."
Last night Mark was reading his books for a class he is doing at ECCU on righteousness. We started talking about 2 Corinthians 5:16 that says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation..." But then Mark went on a little further to verses 19 & 20 when a revelation came to me. God was IN Christ reconciling the world to Himself. When God sent His Son to be our covering, to become the living mercy seat, the living place of atonment, He also became a human. God, in Jesus, took on human flesh. He came into the world as a newborn baby. We think of that at Christmas and ponder it as an awesome miracle - a virgin birth, Mary being so young and so obedient to God. But do you ever think about how God had such a desire to be in relationship with us that He became a person - just like you and me? That He went through the process of humanity of birth to death just to be that much closer to His creation? It makes me want to bawl like a newborn baby to think of this. I remember the birth of my son Barrett like it was yesterday. Barrett's birth came only 20 mos. after I had delivered Andrew by Emergency C-Section. My doctor told me that I would have no more children naturally, that they'd all be C-Section and I needed to wait at least 2 years before getting pregnant again. To some that would be okay but I knew in my heart that I was called to have 4 children very close in age. I was determined to believe the report of the Lord and got pregnant again quickly. Barrett was born naturally in all manners of the word - no drugs - but then whisked off by the doctor claiming he might need to go to NICU because he wasn't calming the way he should. Well, I told that doctor to give me my baby as I was not receiving anything that went against what God had told me for Barrett's birth. So they handed me my baby and the minute he heard my voice he calmed down and looked at my face with an awe and love only a mother and baby can feel for eachother. I weigh this experience in my life against the fact that God also came as a newborn baby just like each of us came into this world - experiencing the loving touch of a mother. God, in human flesh, felt the tender love of His creation through His creation. He was able to breath in the smell of everything around Him just like a mother gently smells the top of her baby's head. As a young boy His feet tromped and stomped across the earth that He spoke into existence. He experienced our humanity to the fullest extent of experience. I imagine how much He must have enjoyed tasting the food Mary cooked or the feeling of the saw dust after Joseph sanded down a piece of wood. How exciting it was to be so close to the people He loved so much and desired so much to reconcile unto Himself. The thrill of hearing the voices of the people saying, "Hosanna, God save now," knowing that shortly He would take up residence in them too through the Holy Spirit. It makes me love Him more knowing He desired so much to be close to me in a tangible way, enough to become human. How can I not love Him!?
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