Under an Endless Sky

The Greatest Love

Last night we had an excellent special evening of music - so much variety and very meaningful! I got to play piano for a couple of teens that I work with at school (guitar, piano and voice lessons). I was so proud of them! My boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa so Ladger and I got to truly enjoy the concert and the cheesecake served afterwards.

I've been having sad feelings over these holidays - burdened with grief for friends mourning the loss of their baby girl; feeling helpless for a family that's been broken up recently and a friend who has been struggling with her health for ten years and can't get a helpful diagnosis and/or treatment. I often wake up in the night, shed tears and fall back asleep praying for these dear people. We seem to get the idea that Christmas should be a time without pain and problems but in fact the wonder of the story of Christmas happens in the midst of tragedy.

The entire human race is lost and has no hope of a relationship with God...so He provides a way. But it means becoming fully human in order to take our place...to bear the punishment we deserve. The Son of God wraps himself in a human body with all the limitations we all have and becomes a son of man. He is born to a couple who have already born the stigma of having a baby outside of marriage; in a time of Roman rule and oppression. And instead of being born at home with all the help from mid-wives and family in a nice warm, cozy home, He was born in a stable among the barn animals - quite possibly a cave - dark, cold and no doubt strong smelling just because it was mandatory to travel to Bethlehem to pay taxes.

An ignoble beginning for the King of all Kings, for the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end). And why was He born in such a place and in such a time? To save you and I. Not from pain and hardship. But from hopelessness and meaninglessness. He came to give us a position (son and heir of God), to give us hope and a purpose. And most of all to restore us to a relationship with our Creator. Christmas shouldn't be a time where we feel miserable because our lives reflect something other than perfection; we can rejoice that in the midst of everything, God loves us so much - the most amazing, undeserved love in all of human experience.