Babies are the best thing ever...they are a wonder! But, there are those other times when they are a load!
· A load of work and a load of worry
· Unable to tell you what’s wrong.
· They can be a danger to themselves.
· And, boy, are they be dependent!
And this is why I am puzzled as to why God would make his entrance into the world as a baby?! Reliant, meek, drooling, crying, and needing his divine diaper changed.
This God/man baby is a complete departure from the God we know of in the 1000s of years history prior to the 1st century. The God of the Old Testament.
Who is…
· The brooding God of creation thinking the universe into existence.
· The angry God of the flood regretting he had made mankind.
· The judge and jury God who rained fire from heaven upon Sodom
· The avenging God who sent waves of plagues to free his people.
· The dangerous God of Mt Sinai who couldn’t be approached at risk of death.
The God of the Old Testament was anything BUT humble, meek and dependent.
But no, he entered as an embryo the size of a poppy seed — from the size of a poppy seed, to a blueberry, to an avocado and so on until the day he made his entrance …squinting…gasping for breath…and desperate to find his mother’s breast.
Why did God become an ordinary baby?
1. To better relate to relate to us
2. To be approachable
3. To remind us that he came to give us new life
Why did God become an ordinary baby?
· To show us how the power of God would transform the world.
· To represent how heaven meets earth.
· To represent his upside-down kingdom: where humility is power
· To show us that the power of God will transform the world through unexpectedly small things and through common ordinary people.
A swaddled baby says…this is how God works. Poppy seeds become powerhouses. The meek inherit the earth.
This is how God works. The power of the divine delivered in small, insignificant ways.
And that’s the point.
· Heaven meets earth in the ordinary.
· Miracles happen in the commonplace
· The power of God will transform the world through unexpectedly small things and common ordinary people.
It won’t surprise you that this became a theme in Jesus teaching:
· The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
· The meek and the poor in spirit will inherit the earth
· You want to be great you must become a servant of all
· To enter the kingdom of God you must become like a child
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 1 Cor 1:26-29
This baby was the first in the line of the nobodies of the Kingdom. He paved the way for the fragile people, the foolish people, the broken people, the nothings of society. The ordinary. To become extraordinary…and live in such a way that heaven intersects earth wherever they walk.
You, ordinary person, is where heaven meets earth.
· Stop trying to make your grand entrance into this world.
· Stop trying to be more than you are.
· Stop trying to impress.
· Stop trying to be perfect.
· Stop trying to accumulate notoriety.
Just simply be a child of God.
· Love always
· Serve simply
· Live meekly
· Be childlike
· In your little, broken, halting ways represent the power of God.
You are ordinary by birth but extraordinary by destiny And through you…child of God…he will do miracles…he will change lives…he will leave a legacy.
