Love Came Down

Humility is not humanities strongest suit.  I can't speak for everyone but ummmm....I struggle. It is a sneaky thing...pride.  It can wrap itself up in false humility or it can look like righteous indignation, almost always it involves some kind of offence.  Just like Eve, I can think I know better.   Just the other day I caught myself correcting my husbands grammar....ratz.  Humility covers others mistakes, it doesn't put them on blast.   I don't think I am the only one out there that struggles with this.    

Isn't that what Jesus did when He came down.  He covered us and all our "jacked up, messed up ways".  He didn't put us on blast, He actually covered our failures with His perfection.  Yay for that!  

Jesus  knows humble.  He came down in the most humble of ways.  A baby, completely helpless. To relate to us, helpless humanity.  To do for us what we could never do for ourselves. 

Mary humbled herself to His will.  Such a beautiful example of humility....she didn't argue with the angel.  Didn't try to change the plan.  She submitted.  She was humble.  Unlike Mary, I sometimes argue with God about His plan.  Plain and simple, I just argue and even if I submit I catch myself complaining.  

Just when I think I have made progress, I slip up.  I snap at someone for not doing it my way, I complain about something I shouldn't, I get fixated on what I think should happen. Pride stinks.  It is at the root of every argument, every judgement, every sin.....Jesus hates it and Satan loves it.  Pride says I deserve to be heard, I am right and others must know it, my way is the only way, I see their sin and I want to point it out, pride refuses to forgive, etc.  You can just fill in the blank here on what it looks like in your own life.  

Humility looks like love, it comes down.  It kneels with the broken, lifts up the hurting, lays itself down for others.  It looks eye to eye and doesn't say a thing, except love. Humility covers sin, it doesn't expose it.  Humility wants the best for others, not itself.  Jesus was thinking of us, when He came down.  He was thinking of our pain and suffering and was willing to endure His own pain and suffering for us.  That is humility.  That is humble.  

He was born in a stable.  A stable of all places.  No grand hotel, no fancy linens, the King came in a stable.  I could take a lesson from this.  I gotta admit, I like the nice places.  However, Jesus always shows up in the low places.  That's not to say He is never at the Hyatt, but let's just be honest any of us that have gone on a missions trip know that we really see Him there.  He loves the unexpected places, the damp and musty places, the dry and barren places.  He is not about the comfort of earth, but the need of humanity.  

The first Kingly announcement came to the shepherds.  The blue collar workers of Bible times.  The least of these, the dirty, the campers, the hard workers....He choose Shepherds to teach us something....humility.    

Do you know this stable door was low, a low cave burrowed out among the stone…..the only way to go in is to stoop low….to witness the Savior, you have to get down on your knees….

Ordinary shepherds who were willing to bow down…kneel and become those extraordinary enough to see the baby King in a manger. They became the first evangelist, to tell the good news. 

So while the smarty pants religious were sleeping, and the elite were dreaming, and the successful were tucked away in their warm beds, the shepherds….the meek and lowly ones were kneeling at a manger, staring into the face of the King.

That is the gift of Christmas, His presence, His love came down….

Emmanuel God with us….Humility exampled, lived out for all to see.

Stepping from the throne, He removed His robe and wrapped himself in skin…entered a young peasant  girls womb, birthed into a cold night and slept on cold hay….

I imagine Mary didn’t know whether to give him milk or give him praise….she gave him both.

Jesus came down to a stable and in so doing he said,

I love you this much….I will speak your language, sleep on your earth, feel your pain, walk your streets, experience your friendship and your betrayal….then I will once again say, I love you this much and spread my arms out on a cross and die for you.

We wonder how long He will love us?  Look to the cross, that’s our death He died…look to the empty tomb that’s our resurrection He’s  living.  He will love us for all eternity.

That’s how much He loves us. 

We are precious to Him.  So precious that he became like us, that we would come to him. 

In the Message Isaiah 9:6,  says it this way….

A child has been born---for us!

The gift of a son—For us!

His names will be:  Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness

Love came down to be our counselor, our strength, our family and our wholeness….He loved us soooo much that He had to come.  He got low, in order to take us high.  Love came down so that Heaven could open it's gates wide.  Love came down, humbled Himself in order to save us. Humility personified for all of humanity.  

Dear Jesus,

May we actively crush pride under our feet this Christmas Season, just as you did when you came to this earth as a baby.   May love reign supreme over everything else.  May we be like Mary and humbly submit to your plans.  May we like the shepherds be those who are kneeling in front of the King.  May we stoop low to enter into your presence.  May we remember that no matter our accomplishments nothing compares to you, the King.  May we learn from you and the Shepherds, that blessed are the meek. 

In Jesus Name we pray, make it so Lord.