“Away in a manger” Let me paint a picture for you. Mansions and streets of gold. Gates of pearls. Sea as clear as glass. At the center a temple where light from glory lights all of heaven. Angels in the millions. No pain. No disease. No war. A world full of love and holiness. What a place heaven will be! No imagine voluntarily giving all of that up! Now think of another picture…a stable. Cows and sheep. Hay. Cold breezes. No to little light. Stone and rock. “Away in a manger no crib for a bed.” Jesus voluntarily gave up all of heaven to come to earth for our salvation. He touched those that no one else would reach in human flesh. So why…why give up heaven and be born in a dirty, filthy stable? He is righteousness. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He provided our salvation, he wanted our relationship…so what comes from being born in a manger? One word…Hope! Jesus was born in human skin – he could have been born to a royal family, a well off family…but he wasn’t all to give us hope! Hope that through the some of the worst circumstances of life that those things could be overcome! Jesus was born to a poor, hardworking family to show that miraculous things can be accomplished from the lowest and poorest of people and times! It wasn’t enough to just fix things so we could get to heaven…it wasn’t enough just to have a relationship with the creator of all things…Jesus wanted us to know that he could relate to things we could go through…that he literally had walked in our shoes and felt what we felt…and that he had come to save the world and to carry the burdens of those that will throw them off onto him!!! Jesus came for the poor, for the diseased, the outcast, the forgotten…he came to save the lost…and even more he came in way that he could relate to them! What a savior that has been born! Think about the hardships of your life and to comfort that the Savior of the world…has walked where you walked…has suffered as you suffer and he was born to forgive your sins, but even more so to provide hope to the hopeless…love for the unloved…and a promise that if you will give it to him…he will carry you! Daddy, we go through so many things that we don’t understand. We can’t see the big picture…but you can. You have walked in our shoes, you have cried our tears and have felt our pain! What an awesome father you are!!! Even now as we walk through struggles, trials and fires and we see no way out…remind us that you are with us…that you love us…and that you not only gave up your life but gave up all of heaven so each and every one of us could have the hope for a brighter future! Amen. https://youtube/watch?v=97TnsBj4P70
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:00:00 +0000