One Big Disappointment?

"A baby? You sent a baby? We've been oppressed for hundreds of years and we are now under the rule of the cruelest yet and you send us a king with a diaper?" Can you imagine? They were waiting on someone to come and obliterate their enemies. Someone that would show up and show off. Put the Romans in their place and show them that the Jewish people were not to be messed with...they had a King. But, alas, a baby. He couldn't make decrees, order armies, or conquer the enemy. Just a big disappointment. Then you look closer.

"It's not just any baby. It's mine. It's my only Son. Not only that, it's Me. I left my throne, put on your filthy diseased flesh and laid myself in a dirty feed trough. Just to know you better. Just to know you and to rescue you from that filthy diseased flesh and pull you out of your dirty feed trough of a life."

Just not the plan of people was it? We have the wonderful gift of the entire picture. We have, in black and white, the Old and New Testament. The big picture bound in bonded leather sitting on our tables. What did they have? Enemies, big ones. Hopes of a King coming in with bulging biceps and wielding a powerful sword crushing everyone but His own. Instead...a baby.

I love the plan. John says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God and that it, the Word, came a dwelt among Men...in the darkness. The light came into the darkness...pierced it like a sword. There He was in order to feel the wind, and the sting of the murderous threats, to throw tables and calm seas. To walk the dirt, experience hunger and fatigue and He even wept. Then it came time for Him to lay that bruised body down, spread those calloused hands wide and breathe this wretched air once more. Then, oh blessed rest of the story! He defeats the death that has been threatening since that devastating day in the garden when man chose himself. He beats it down, chases it to hell and leaves it in the dank and dark depths to never haunt His people again. He handled the enemy all right. Once and for all He took care of the enemy. Thank you Jesus!

A baby. I have a baby now and she has to eat and sleep and be changed and carried and one day she'll hear the wonderful story of the baby that now is our bread, our rest, the One who changes us and carries us. The One who sits at the right hand of our Father and pleads for us with those scarred hands. He knows our journey. He knows how it smells here. He knows how it feels. He knows joy and sorrow and He knows how tight this flesh can feel sometimes. All because He came as a baby. A King. The Promise. The Savior. Our Redeemer and Comforter. Our Emmanuel...God with us.

I love His plan.