“The journey from heaven to earth is the longest journey anyone has ever taken,” Pastor Rick said in his sermon on Sunday. Have you ever tried to grasp just how far Jesus had to come?
How many miles is it, after all, from the throneroom of heaven to a cave in Bethlehem? From total sovereignty to absolute dependence? From incredible glory to almost complete obscurity? From intimate fellowship with the Father and the Son to the peculiar barriers of flesh - an infant mind that cannot even comprehend its surroundings, eyes that cannot focus, lips that cannot yet form words?
How long is the journey from unending perfection to the decay of this sordid earth? From dazzling light and splendor to a globe that spends half its time in darkness? From complete wholeness and sufficiency to poverty and hunger? From omnipotent power to weakness and weariness? From myriads of angels in instant attendance to a mom and dad trying their imperfect best to understand the incoherent expressions of their infant Son?
How far, how really, really far, is it from superintending the creation of the universe to taking the form of the created being? From infinite knowledge to the barely conscious mind of an infant? From answering to the Father to taking orders from a carpenter and his wife?
How far did Jesus come, when He allowed Himself to be contracted from the infinite corners of His existence, into a microscopic embryo inside of Mary… utterly oblivious to existence, completely dependent on His Father and those entrusted with His care?
How far He came… for me and you! Truly He “made Himself nothing” for our sakes, joining us here so that we can someday join Him in all that He left. Standing beside the manger this Christmas season, we can only shake our heads in amazement, and whisper the words of the psalmist David,
Surely, You stooped down to make us great.* And we are eternally grateful.
*Psalm 18:35b NIV
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