Tuesday, December 21: Luke 18- the manger and the cross

It felt strange or disconnected. I spend much of my day preparing for Christmas –the Christmas eve service at my church and Christmas day with my family- and then I read about Jesus telling his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to die and rise again. "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again" (31-33). Christmas and Easter –a cute newborn baby and a cruel cross- seem like two puzzle pieces that don’t fit together…?!

Yet as I pondered the seeming incongruence I was feeling, it was as if God turned one of the puzzle pieces and immediately they slid perfectly together.

The manger and the cross are both symbols of God’s extraordinary love for you and me and all the human race. In the manger God comes to us, becoming one of us (!), identifying and connecting with us so that He can lead us back into a relationship with Himself. The cross, then, is the necessary payment that makes the reconnection between us humans and God who loves us. Both are necessary to complete the task of putting sin-filled humans, like me, back into a relationship with the almighty and perfect God of the universe.

I don’t normally think about Good Friday and Easter at Christmas time but as I do this morning, I am glad God put these together for me in my devotions this morning. What an incredible picture of God’s supreme and sacrificial love for me, for you, for everybody…

Lord God, thank You for demonstrating Your love. Jesus, thank You for your birth, Your life, Your death and Your resurrection. Holy Spirit, thank You for unveiling my eyes and allowing me to see how much You, the Son and the Father love me… Amen.