The Rev. Rob Hartley
God Has Rewritten Your Future
This is the season we celebrate the Incarnation of
God, the Feast of the Nativity, or Christmas, as the Church has called it
through the centuries. At Christmas we are
presented with is a babe in a manger in swaddling clothes who is none other
than Almighty God, Creator of the universe, who is choosing to be swaddled in
humanity. St. John the Gospel writer
puts it this way, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is a truly radical event in human
history. It is the single most
significant event for humankind since God spoke into existence this whole
wonderful experiment we call Creation.
What fascinates me over and over about the
Incarnation is that God chose to redirect human history, your future and mine,
in this way. If God had asked my advice,
I would have suggested that He fix what is broken in humanity some other
way. What’s with this plan about a baby in a feeding trough, in a cattle shed,
in a small town in a backwater province of the Roman Empire some 2000 years
ago! And more than that, God has this
history-altering event dependent on the faithfulness and obedience of a
carpenter named Joseph and a teenage peasant girl named Mary. God has this timeless event witnessed only by
a few shepherds in the area who get tipped off about what is going on by a band
of celebrating angels, and by three sages from afar! What was God thinking?
How would you have advised God on this? Perhaps you would ask God to come up with Plan
B. But to bring all creation back in
union and harmony with Himself, God has no plan B… no other way…. As Jesus Himself says, “I am the Way…”
What fascinates me about God’s Plan (Plan A), the
Incarnation, is that it re-writes all of human destiny, re-writes your future
and mine, and does it so simply. With a
baby lying in a cattle trough, God provides a way for all of us to find new,
eternal and glorious life in union with Him.
God, who is in the miracle business, gives us the greatest miracle of
all at Christmas… He gives us Himself, His answer to our problem.
A final fascination I have with the Incarnation is
that God has taken all the initiative.
We do nothing except allow ourselves to be the object of God’s
immeasurable love and redemption. God
does all the heavy lifting in terms of bringing about a new future for you and
me. When we need to find our way to Him,
God instead comes to us. How
amazing! Why this baby in a manger?
…Because He loves us. As one of our
Christmas carols says, “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love
divine.”
Like the shepherds and the Magi in this remarkable
Christmas story, all we have to do is present ourselves before the Christ child. Are you prepared to present yourself before
God this Christmas? Are you ready for a
Christmas miracle to happen in your life?
Have you opened your heart to all this Christmas story makes possible
for you? Make God’s greatest miracle
your personal, life-changing miracle.
Rob+,
Christmas, 2013
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