Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
2 CORINTHIANS 9:15
God started the idea of gift-giving, with the greatest gift that could ever be given – his own Son! And Paul is right – it is not possible to put into words how glorious this gift is. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try!
It takes all our imagination to ponder the incarnation, and we quickly run out of brain-space. Our capacity seems so, well, finite. But there are occasions in Scripture where the Spirit so inspired the writers that we get a greater understanding of just Who this newborn was, and what His mission was.
We are told that Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” LUKE 2:19 As the song suggests, could she have known the following?
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
1 JOHN 3:8
Or what about when Paul began his book to the church at Colossae? It can’t get any more grand that that!
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. COLOSSIANS 1:15-17
The book of Hebrews makes a further attempt to describe the indescribable with one more profound reason why God would become man.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. HEBREWS 2:14-17
This coming Sunday, at 10:00 a.m., after you have opened all of your presents and had your sweets and hot chocolate, we will be gathering at Grace for a one-hour service, where one more time we will attempt to describe this indescribable gift, this time “from A to Z.”
Different families will help us ponder through the alphabet, as we consider and sing the truth that this wonderful day represents.
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