The Comfort of the Incarnate

   So Thanksgiving evening I started listening to Christmas songs. I refuse to listen any earlier! Yet, as I thought about the words to some of my favorite songs and carols, I began to think, "These really are for every day, all year long." Without the birth, the life would have never been offered up on my behalf so I could spend eternity with God. I love the way the Message translates John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.

   The whole "moved into the neighborhood" thing is what really makes it alive for me. There are several other verses translated in the Message that use that talk about God living with His people, yes, even moving into the neighborhood.  Check out Exodus 29:45-46, Zechariah 2:11 (Talking about the Gentiles, you think?) , Ezekiel 37:26-27, (WooHoo for the Everlasting Covenant!) Jeremiah 7:7, II Chronicles 6:18 (The cosmos isn't big enough to contain God, but He chose to live with us, in us.), and Revelation 21:3.

   The three songs that really get me thinking about the incarnate Christ are  "This Baby" sung by Steven Curtis Chapman ("Holy and human right from the start."), "Did You Know?" sung by Todd Agnew (Did the cross cast a shadow o'er your cradle?), and "Mary Did You Know?" sung by Mark Lowery (this child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you...And when you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God...This sleeping child you're holding is the great I Am."
   Thinking about Jesus being fully God and fully man is a profound concept. Can it be explained? I read an Albert Einstein quote about things that said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." The simplest explanation I can give, based on what I've discovered from Bible study and personal relationship, is well put in Hebrews 10:14 (The Message) "It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people" The reason, simply put, is pure love.
   Here are the songs I mentioned:

     "This Baby"

"Did You Know?"

"Mary, Did You Know?"