Jesus is Getting Ready for Christmas: Happy Annunciation Day
- Norine
- Mar 25, 2019
- 2 min read
We say by tradition that Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb on March 25th. It’s nine months before Christmas, after all. Maybe today is a good day to give presents.
If you didn't buy anything, Jesus has gifts for you anyway. And what incomparable gifts they are! The Second Person of the Trinity lowered Himself from the comforts of His throne in Heaven to the common human life. He spent nine months in a womb while the Father formed His body in secret (Psalm 139:15), showing the holiness of pre-born life. He waited helplessly, knowing God’s strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). He became the smallest version of a person, experiencing for Himself how God blesses children (Mark 10:13-16).
I am sure He felt Mary's perfect love and protection from the womb. But in His omniscience, I'm sure He also experienced Mary's pain as others found her pregnant before marriage and judged her unfairly. I'm sure He felt the worries when Joseph initially considered divorcing Mary. I'm sure He experienced the difficulty of having so many people deny His mother and foster father a place to stay in Bethlehem right before He was born.
Even from the womb, Jesus would live a human life of poverty, obscurity and rejection. And then for 33-years, He lowered Himself to the reality of human suffering in this fallen world. This makes Jesus' offering of healing and salvation so much more tangible. Jesus wants to free you from your burdens because He has experienced them. He didn’t just look at them from above or listen to your cries from afar. He wore them. He walked in them. He broke their power from within.
I think about this often when I'm lonely or angry or sad. I think about this when I feel hopeless. I think about this when I pray for others. Jesus experienced our common things too. God became human so humanity could experience divinity. The untouchable God became touchable. These are gifts that would take an eternity to ponder.
Today, we celebrate the Incarnation of Jesus. What folly in our human understanding for a powerful person to choose weakness! What folly for a rich person to choose poverty! What folly for a comfortable person to choose suffering. Why would He do such a thing?
He did it for love. What a gift!
1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom...
1 John 4:9 In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
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