I look with joy at the Child in the manger and wonder,
“What Child is this who, laid to rest on Mary’s lap, is sleeping?”
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
Emmanuel – God is with us.
The Lord of Creation shares in our humanity
so that we can begin to understand and know His divinity.
I can almost imagine myself holding the baby in swaddling clothes in my hands.
But it is actually I whom He has in the palm of His hands.
The next time Mary would have her son in her lap at the foot of the cross
and we wonder “Is this the God-man who has come to save us?”
The Messiah hang on the cross to save us.
The God who came for us.
He who made the moon and the stars,
who fashioned the earth from stardust,
shared in the weakness and imperfection of our humanity
so that we can rise up with Him in glory.
He came for us. To save us.
And then we stand and look at the empty tomb
together with Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved to see,
believe and understand all of these things.
He lives and dwells within us.
He sends His Spirit who enfolds us in His care
and lives within the deepest part of our being
where we are most human.
God is with us, incarnated in Jesus, lying in a manger.
Jesus came for us to save us, nailed to a wooden cross.
God is within us, His Spirit enfolding us.