The Manger Without the Cross

You can't have the manger without the cross.

Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby, dependent on mankind to clothe him and feed him, to care for him and teach him. That the God of the universe would humble Himself to journey the same road we have to travel astounds me. I simply cannot wrap my mind around this fact. He didn't have to come down at all, and he didn't have to come to earth in this way.

But he did. He came down as a baby, tiny and dependent. He grew the same way we grow, each phase and age. He didn't get to skip those first stumbling steps. He had to travel the rough waters of the teenage years. He was sometimes alone. He was sometimes crowded out of any sense of normalcy. He was often misunderstood. Rejected. He walked through human life.

Why? Why did he come down into the humblest of births? (Don't let the cute nativity scenes pictured in books fool you. Joseph and Mary were alone to bring their holy baby into the world. In a stable. There is nothing cute or cuddly about that.)

He came for one sole purpose.

The cross.

He came, lived a very human life, in order that he could take on the full burden of our sins and die on the cross. So when we cry out to him in pain or confusion, he can honestly, tenderly say "I have been there."

This truth hit me anew today. God chose the most humble walk he could...for me. For you. What other truths do I "know" so well (like the story of Christ's birth) that I have become almost desensitized to their significance?

Prayer: It is easy to tell someone you are praying. But true intercession, the kind that moves mountains, takes diligence and being intentional. It take surrendering your time and agenda to be in constant communication with the One who can stop time and agendas!

Faith: It is easy to tell someone to have faith, that 'God works all things for good.' Yet real faith is also intentional. And it is a battle. Because for every seed of faith you have, Satan wants to swoop in and plant instead seeds of doubt and discouragement.

Forgiveness: It is easy to preach forgiveness. After all, we say, God forgives us our sins. But it is quite another to forgive someone while they are hurting you or if they refuse to acknowledge their actions. But Christ doesn't give us conditions on which we can forgive. He simply says, "you must."

Spiritual life: It is easy to accept the fact that God is mighty and has angels to do his bidding. Yet you cannot read the Bible and accept that fact without recognizing that we are living in a fallen world, which is essentially Satan's playground. He breeds hurt, disappointment, death, disease. God is, has and will always overcome. But it is unwise to go into any war without an idea about our enemy. And we do have one here on this earth.

Oh there are so many more truths. Many, many that God wants you to uncover and to live out! But part of the problem is lack of knowledge - we talk about what Jesus would do...but we don't open our Bibles every single day to see what Jesus would do! How many of our philosophies are based on something that isn't even found in Scripture?? The other part of the problem is application. Knowing...but not applying. It does us absolutely no good to study the Word, to pore over Christ's example...if we aren't going to do a thing about it.

You may have this down to an art. I do not. God is daily convicting me that in order to have the priviledge of talking the talk, I must walk the walk. I cannot tell others to forgive, if I am unwilling to do so with abandon! I cannot tell others to pray if I am not diligent and constantly in tune with the Father. I cannot tell someone else to follow Jesus Christ if I am not applying his every direction to my own life.

Jesus Christ came to us, a tiny babe in a manger. The humblest of births.
He then died on the cross. The most sacrificial of deaths.
Oh - but the life he lived in between! Study his days. And model after them.

It's a worthy journey!