Good Morning. I pray you all weathered the storm in good stead.
I found a beautiful reading and I cannot say it better myself so I'm going to quote it...
It goes with the text 1 Timothy 3:16. "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh."
"How could the eternal God become man? How could the One who is without beginning or end of days, whose fingers flung the stars into space and the world, condescend to become human, one with us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh?
One night in Bethlehem, a baby's cry cut through the stillness. Mary, wife of Joseph, but still a virgin, had given birth. The Word had become flesh! See Him lying in the manger; so tiny, so helpless, so dependent, so like us!
Could it be that Mary's child, conceived of the Holy Spirit but so obviously like us, is the eternal God? He whose goings forth were from eternity? How can it be, that this babe is both man and God?
We can study, probe, philosophize, and argue, but we can never explain this mystery. To explain the God man would require the ability to understand God. Why, we but poorly understand man; we know far less about God, except what He has told us about Himself.
But we don't have to be able to explain Jesus in order to know Him. Genuine Christianity always will retain the element of mystery about the Babe of Bethlehem. He is like us but not exactly. He is human; but He is so much more!"
From the book 'Selected Messages', "That God should thus be manifest in the flesh is indeed a mystery, and without the help of the Holy Spirit we cannot hope to comprehend the subject. The most humbling lesson that man has to learn is the nothingness of human wisdom, and the folly of trying, by his own unaided efforts, to find out God"
Instead of debating, maybe we should be like Moses when he saw the burning bush. We stand in awe in the presence of God and take off our shoes because we are standing on holy ground. We fall down in adoration; amazed, awestruck, and grateful.
"Jesus, child of Mary, so frail, so weak, so small, at Thy crib I worship and own Thee Lord of all."
I pray as the world goes through the rituals and traditions in the next few days that you will do the best part and that is to contemplate the great sacrifice of God's selfless act on behalf of mankind, yes, but make it personal, His sacrifice and selfless act for you!
As the saying goes, "He is the reason for the season and wise men still seek Him"
Happy Birthday Jesus
1 Timothy 3:16. "And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh."