Over the next few days till Christmas I would like you to take a journey with me in anticipation. Let's daily look at the events leading up to the birth of Christ with a sense of anticipation of His arrival into this world and into our lives. (Inspired by the Book "The Miraculous Journey" by Marty A. Bullis).
Advent - Day 22 - An Upside Down World
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)
It's not easy to think of God becoming something. We usually think of God beyond the fray, unaffected by everyday affairs. Becoming entails change - requires being affected by somthing. The Advent of Christ changes the way we view God. We have Christ, we have the Word, entering our universe, our time, and our space, and growing from fetus to adulthood. His body is subject to all the limitations and pains which to which ours are; He bleeds, sweats, tires, hungers, thirsts and desires. God became fully human, came to involve Himself in our limitation, came to experience lack. Heaven dipped itself down and experienced the consequences that humanity reaped when we lost ourselves to sin.
God's great gift to us was to experience that we experience, to know the separation that comes as a consequence of sin. God in the person of Christ became less in order to give us the power to become more. This is what we could call an "Upside Down Faith," in which less is more and more is less.
As most of us walk into Christmas full of things and full of providential care, John shows us a model for life. Christ, the king of glory, lowering Himself and walking with brothers and sisters in their broken condition.
There is a hope in this Advent model. The experience of limitation does not diminish Christ. Rather, it provides Him with just what He needs to help our infirmity. "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (Hebrews 2:18 ESV) And for us this Advent Season? We are called to become like Christ, to walk with our brothers and sisters in their brokenness, to dip ourselves down, and get ourselves dirty that we might lead others to the light - "The true light that enlightens everyone" (John 1:9).
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