For unto us a Child is Born...

Matt brought home the book, "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" ( edited by Nancy Guthrie)
It is a series of 22 advent readings. We decided to read one a day together through the month. It takes less than 10 minutes for us to sit and read together but the words have been quite powerful. It has been nice to start each day this Christmas season w/ reflections on who Christ is.

A few quotations that stuck out to me are:

"When a person makes his home among people he moves in with them. He identifies with them. The incarnation is the moving in of the eternal Word so that he utterly identifies with us in every way. He took the whole nature of a human being, fully and totally identifying with everything with all that it means for us to be human..." (excerpt from That You May Believe: New Life in the Son by Joseph R. Ryan)

When Matt and I first decided to plant a church he often asked, "What would it look like if Jesus moved into our neighborhood?" I have thought back to that analogy often in everyday life. I have Christ, He is in me.. here I am everyday in my work place, in my neighborhood, at the grocery store.. are things changing because of that? Am I reaching out to others, meeting them where they are?

Here's another one...

"This is the word of a prophet, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6) This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours. That is where we wilt, but he who does feel it has become another man. Truly it is a marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in him. And this Child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through a babe nursing at Mary's breast."
(Adapted from Martin Luther's Christmas Book, edited by Roland H. Bainton)

Christ came to be with us.
He was born a baby into the world.
He experienced life.
He spent time with people.
He met peoples needs.
He is our God.

Our Great God humbled himself to come to earth and be born as a baby. Our Great God loved us that much. He "moved into our neighborhood", he became like us.. he came and sat at our table, he walked on our dirty streets...

Our Great God...

Gosh, what's my excuse?

I am going to try to start looking for ways that I can better demonstrate God's love, will you?