Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?
Power. Greater power than we can imagine, abandoned, as the Word knew the powerlessness of the unborn child, still unformed, taking up almost no space in the great ocean of amniotic fluid, unseeing, unhearing, unknowing. Slowly growing, as any human embryo grows, arms and legs and a head, eyes, mouth, nose, slowly swimming into life until the ocean in the womb is no longer large enough, and it is time for birth.
Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ, the Maker of the universe or perhaps many universes, willingly and lovingly leaving all that power and coming to this poor, sin-filled planet to live with us for a a few years to show us what we ought to be and could be. Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God's image.
~Madeleine L'Engle
"... Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God's image."
And ... to give us the power to be transformed into that image! Without his birth—his incarnation, his life, his death—his trampling down death by death, AND his resurrection we would only have gotten to see what it means to be made in God's image. Now it is possible to become like him.
But we must die as well and be raised with him to newness of life, a restored life. "Old things are passed away, all things become new." — day by day, moment by moment.
Glory be to God.
Posted by: Gail Hyatt | 12 December 2010 at 07:38 AM
I love this. Such a tangible picture of the incarnation. Thanks for sharing on this quiet, snowy morning.
Posted by: Megan Miller | 12 December 2010 at 08:45 AM