Hanging with Jesus on Christmas Morning
I woke up at 1 AM this morning, needing some water. Walking to the kitchen my little creche caught my eye (it is hard to miss sitting on an end table with the light on within it).
I felt drawn to sit next to "Him" on His birthday, particularly since there is a love seat right next to the creche.
Reaching for my Kindle, I opened it to my favorite devotional book by Philip Yancey. The reading for December 25 contained:
" In the Old Testament I found myself identifying with those who boldly stood up to God: Moses, Job, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, the psalmists. As I read, I felt I was watching a play with human characters who acted out their lives of small triumph and large tragedy onstage, while periodically calling to an unseen Stage Manager, “You don’t know what it’s like out here!”
Job was most brazen, flinging to God this accusation: “Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?”
Every so often I could hear the echo of a booming voice from far offstage, behind the curtain.
“Yeah, and you don’t know what it’s like back here either!” it said to Moses, to the prophets, most clearly to Job. When I got to the Gospels, however, the accusing voices stilled. God, if I may use such language, “found out” what life is like in the confines of planet Earth. Jesus got acquainted with grief in person, in a brief, troubled life not far from the dusty plains where Job had travailed. Of the many reasons for incarnation, surely one was to answer Job’s accusation: Do you have eyes of flesh? For a time, God did. "
Yancey, Philip. Grace Notes: Daily Readings with Philip Yancey (p. 409). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
