JANUARY 1, 2020

Selection from December 2014

Advent is more than just longing.  It is hope.  

Like many, I always wanted a pony for Christmas.  I wanted it more than my two front teeth.  My longing involved two front hooves and two in the rear.  I am still waiting for the pony.  Advent.  I relish it still even though I did not get my pony, not yet anyway.

Oh, how I want to be like Mary and ponder these things in my heart.  Mary was filled with love for her child, but also for the great wonder of the unknown, the unpredictable gift of God held within her arms.  There is no heart large enough to contain the God who is love.  It is beyond comprehension.  

That is why we must ponder.  We must seek Him.  We must clean our hearts, scrape out the old hay in the stable and put fresh down daily, so to speak.  We must prepare Him room.  Without the coming of the Christ child, the stable would be rank.  It was no fancy stable.  Mary gave birth one step away from being totally exposed to the elements.  Perhaps it was better to see the starry host.

The sheep were prepared for slaughter for the blood sacrifice that continually must be made for the forgiveness of sin because there was no power to break the sin cycle.   Jesus was sent.  Did the bleating of sheep always make Him think of His coming ultimate sacrifice?  

He came to make a difference.  The difference came: His Holy Spirit was given with power, truly God in us, Emmanuel.  As long as the Christ was the God-man, His disciples were confused, befuddled about who He really was, even deserting Him in His darkest moments.  A suffering Savior was not in their expectations of the Messiah.

The suffering began as He was laid to sleep upon the hay until He was stretched out and nailed to a cross: hammer and nails,  His father Joseph's trade.  Yet, even the shadow of the cross, the sword that would pierce Mary's heart is not the last word.  He will be seen coming out of the stable one day riding upon a white horse.

"And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True...He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called the Word of God.  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.  And from His mouth comes a sharp sword...And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, 'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.'"  Revelation 19:11-16

The sword, the Word of God, reappears and it is His robe which is dipped in blood.  We will follow Him on white horses.  So, I will get my pony after all because His name is Faithful and True.