The advent season is a beautiful time to reflect on God's adoptive love for a broken world. Join me in preparing for Christmas by meditating daily on the coming of Christ and praying for the fatherless.
Evil and Darkenss
Evil and Darkenss
"Just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can be befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives. " - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The manger scene has become the snapshot picture of the Christmas story. The photos depicting Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the manger are warm and comforting. What a magical evening Christmas must have been. Hosts of angels singing, shepherds worshiping, and a newly married couple holding the newborn promised Messiah in their arms. But this miraculous birth and the joyous celebration that surrounded the arrival of Christ came in the middle of a dark, cold night.
Mary and Joseph had journeyed over 90 miles from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for the census. They probably were staying with relatives and around family, but wherever she was staying, by the time she was ready to give birth, there was no room for her in the guest house. I am sure the anxiousness, pain, and fear that surrounds all mothers during their final stages of labor were very real for Mary.
But in the midst of the exhaustion, the fear, and the pain...light broke through. Christ entered the darkness and turned poverty into wealth and darkness into light. What did this mean for Israel? What did it mean for God's people? Would this king, born in a manger, now save them from their oppression? Would this promised Messiah now make them a great nation once again?
Whatever Israel had in mind when they imagined the purpose of the Messiah, God has something entirely different planned. Deliverance did not follow the birth of Christ, but death. Within a few years of Christ's birth, Herod ordered the death of infant boys attempting to destroy the life of this "promised" king of the Jews. The slaughter of toddlers is what followed the coming of the King.
Truly, as Bonhoeffer says, "The Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong." What seems horrific and evil to us is just one part of a larger story. The bloodshed by Herod was horrific indeed. The birth of Christ sealed the fate for God's great enemy and his murderous anger would be fierce. But Christ's birth is a reminder that the greatest evil in this world is losing its power, the curse is reversing, death is being eliminated.
Christmas reminds us that Christ's birth was the beginning of the final advances for the last battle. Blood would be shed. In the moment, it seems as though there is no light at all, but where you see great poverty and evil, you will see the light of Christ destroying his enemy.
Prayer for Orphans:
Suffering the loss of parents as a child is a terrible loss. For many orphans, they have not only lost their parents and relatives, but they also have been exposed to great injustice and evil as a result. Pray for orphans who are vulnerable and at risk of hunger, abuse, and sex slavery. Pray for God to lead Christian's into the darkest parts of our world to bring light to those who are devastated by darkness. Pray for healing for those who have been abused and that the Lord would restore them. Pray for the Lord to burden our hearts for the injustice that orphans face everyday.
The manger scene has become the snapshot picture of the Christmas story. The photos depicting Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the manger are warm and comforting. What a magical evening Christmas must have been. Hosts of angels singing, shepherds worshiping, and a newly married couple holding the newborn promised Messiah in their arms. But this miraculous birth and the joyous celebration that surrounded the arrival of Christ came in the middle of a dark, cold night.
Mary and Joseph had journeyed over 90 miles from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for the census. They probably were staying with relatives and around family, but wherever she was staying, by the time she was ready to give birth, there was no room for her in the guest house. I am sure the anxiousness, pain, and fear that surrounds all mothers during their final stages of labor were very real for Mary.
But in the midst of the exhaustion, the fear, and the pain...light broke through. Christ entered the darkness and turned poverty into wealth and darkness into light. What did this mean for Israel? What did it mean for God's people? Would this king, born in a manger, now save them from their oppression? Would this promised Messiah now make them a great nation once again?
Whatever Israel had in mind when they imagined the purpose of the Messiah, God has something entirely different planned. Deliverance did not follow the birth of Christ, but death. Within a few years of Christ's birth, Herod ordered the death of infant boys attempting to destroy the life of this "promised" king of the Jews. The slaughter of toddlers is what followed the coming of the King.
Truly, as Bonhoeffer says, "The Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong." What seems horrific and evil to us is just one part of a larger story. The bloodshed by Herod was horrific indeed. The birth of Christ sealed the fate for God's great enemy and his murderous anger would be fierce. But Christ's birth is a reminder that the greatest evil in this world is losing its power, the curse is reversing, death is being eliminated.
Christmas reminds us that Christ's birth was the beginning of the final advances for the last battle. Blood would be shed. In the moment, it seems as though there is no light at all, but where you see great poverty and evil, you will see the light of Christ destroying his enemy.
Prayer for Orphans:
Suffering the loss of parents as a child is a terrible loss. For many orphans, they have not only lost their parents and relatives, but they also have been exposed to great injustice and evil as a result. Pray for orphans who are vulnerable and at risk of hunger, abuse, and sex slavery. Pray for God to lead Christian's into the darkest parts of our world to bring light to those who are devastated by darkness. Pray for healing for those who have been abused and that the Lord would restore them. Pray for the Lord to burden our hearts for the injustice that orphans face everyday.
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