Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one
day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will save
our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has
come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you...
{Mark Lowry}
I hope you're stopping to be amazed during this season.
I love the lights...the music...I love the fact that this is the beginning of Easter.
In the mind of God, Christmas and Easter were all planned before time began. And all of the Old Testament pointed to the coming of the Messiah. But Christmas--the Incarnation--when Emmanuel came--this is the beginning of the miracle of redemption.
I probably said the same thing last year. But exciting things are worth mentioning more than once. :)
The reading for my class these past few weeks have been about salvation. Redemption. Justification. Forgiveness. God imputing His righteousness to us.
That's an amazing concept. That God would humble Himself and become the baby of a sinful woman (obedient and faithful, yes, but still a sinner), to grow up to die a horrible death. Not because He had to...but because He loved us and wanted to redeem us.
Have you ever thought about what humility really looks like? For those of us who grew up in church and even have memorized Philippians 2 before, we can easily take it for granted. But Mary's little Boy was not a normal child, not even just a prophet or a good rabbi. He was God.
He became like one of us...so that we could become like Him.
But when the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son,
born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
For those whom he foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his Son,
in order that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called,
and those whom he called he also justified,
and those whom he justified he also glorified.
{Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 8:29-30}
