All In A Days Grace

  Power in weakness Majesty in humility Light in darkness Man and God in one person This is the paradox of Christmas. This is the paradox of Jesus. We have a baby born King of Kings and Lord of Lords, yet he isn’t born in a palace adorned with beauty and grandeur surrounded by his royal subjects. This King of Kings is born in a dirty manger surrounded by animals. There is no smell of royal anointing oil or incense, but instead the pungent aroma of fecal matter mixed with dust and dirt. Jesus comes to us as anything but what we might expect. He is an enigma and an anomaly. We celebrate with lights, decorations, grandeur and food….lots of food! Yet when we truly strive to keep Christ in Christmas, we find that the magnificent glory of Christmas comes packaged not in grandeur at all, but in profound humility. The all-powerful eternal Word trades his glorious throne, for a dirty manger and the light of heaven for the darkness of earth. When Jesus spoke again to the pe...

  Christmas in many ways has become about the lights. We put lights on the Christmas tree and lights on our bushes. We light candles and display them… maybe more than any time of year. We also make jokes about the lights. If you’ve ever attempted to un-tangle a bunch of Christmas lights, you know what I mean. It can test our patience and sometimes take us far away from the peace that we are working to obtain. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.   –John 1:5 (Sure, tell that to the person who has finally untangles said lights, hung them on the tree and plugged them in, only to find they no longer work!) Sometimes our frustration in obtaining the light is that we fail to acknowledge the darkness. That may sound like a strange posture to take during “The most wonderful time of the year…”, but it’s an intricate part of what actually makes the Christmas story ultimately beautiful. There was darkness. For 400 years before the birth ...

  If we have followed the Christmas story over our lifetime, we have heard it said that there was “no room at the Inn” For Mary and Joseph. They had just traveled many miles. Each one of them had just surrendered their lives to the coming of Christ. The angel proclaimed Jesus’ arrival to both Mary and Joseph separately. God clearly had a plan. So why was it that this very pregnant, due to deliver Mary and most likely very nervous new expectant husband, stood at the doors of the Inn and were told there was no room? Wasn’t there a plan? Hadn’t the angel told them not to be frightened? I wonder if they thought “surely there must be a mistake…we are delivering the Christ Child to the world! The Son of God! This is important! We have been commissioned by God!!” Before we get to that probing question lets look at why Mary and Joseph were even looking for an Inn so late in her pregnancy. “At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout th...

  This week begins Advent. As a time of devotional, my church will be reading a chapter from Luke each day.  The twenty four chapters will take us through Advent and ultimately the life of Christ. What better way to celebrate Christ’s birth than to understand His life and also His death. Today being the 2 nd of December, brings us to the second chapter of Luke; the birth of Jesus, introduction to the shepherds and angels, then His presentation at the temple. Chapter one brought the introduction of John the Baptist, Zachariah, Elizabeth, Mary and the Archangel Gabriel! Chapter two also brings us the Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise. There is so much in each of these chapters to sit with and ponder. It seems like I have covered so much ground in these two days! And although I have read Luke many times, something struck me as this story unfolded. We always depict this story with beauty and an element of tidiness. I look around and see all the pretty “Nativity scenes” I’ve...