thoughts this christmas
Merry (almost) Christmas! :) Drew and I are excited to spend this week celebrating Christmas with family and friends and I have decided to take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to soak it all in and get away from the internet for a few days. I've been doing a lot of end-of-the-year reflecting and am just overwhelmed by all that this year has brought. A lot of trials and stress, but mostly a lot of unexpected joys. I am so filled with joy as I think about what God is doing in our lives. He is constantly showing up when I least expect it and providing for us in unexpected ways. So many times, I think I know better than He does how our life should go. But His way is always better. Many times more difficult, but always sweeter in the end. I hope you all know that you are dear to my heart and I've enjoyed learning from you and sharing with you this year.
God comes quiet... This night a battle has been waged and won for you. Love had to come back for you. Love had to get to you. The Love that has been coming for you since the beginning - He slays dragons for you. This is the truest love story of history, and it's His-Story, and it's for you. All the other fairy-tale love stories only echo your yearning for this truest, realest one - this one that has its beginning before the beginning of time. This night, you on this visited planet, your rescue is here. You can breathe.
Your God extends now on straw. He lays himself down in your mire. He unfolds Himself in the stench you want to hide, in that mess that is your impossible, in the mucked straw you don't want anyone to know.
Rejected at the inn, holy God comes in small to where you feel rejected and small. God is with you now. Wherever you are - in a soundless cry or hidden brokenness or in your ache - God always wants to be with you. You are not ever left alone in this. We are never left alone in this; God is with us. This is Love you can't comprehend. You can only feel and touch this kind. There, in the place where you feel rejected, you can be touched by God. There, in the places you feel small, you can touch God. He came in the flesh.
Come kneel close. Let the warm breath of heaven fall on you. God waits to be held. God waits for you to draw close. Grace is weightless. God comes as a Babe because grace is weightless. On a chilled night under stars, there is no grand mass of people whose efforts pry the stars into place. In an obscure caved barn, down some backstreet of Bethlehem, there is no great host whose good works unlatch heaven and impress God into coming. Tonight, at the foot of the cradle of Christ, like at the foot of the Cross of Christ, there are no big people - no powerful, no proud. Tonight there are only those who tramp to the manger with nothing; there are only the manger tramps, the men who lay down all the self-made, the women who lay down all the self-sufficiency, the children who lay down all the wants. We, the manger tramps, who kneel where thrones tremble and demons fall and the self-made crumble and the self-righteous weep.
Tonight there are only the manger tramps, who tramp in with all our poverty of spirit ... so there can be an abundance of God. And the bulk of all your worn shreds slip off the weariness of your back. You have tried to polish enough for Him with these rags. You have tried to patch together so much for Him. You have tried to produce too much for Him with these rags. And you - we - who are the manger tramps see it tonight, what He's written in red on all our filthy rags: But I did it for love. All of conquered heaven and grateful earth echo and throb tonight with the heart cry of the God-Child: I did it for love.
What can all the manger tramps do but wrap the vulnerable God in strips of our bare, broken hearts so He can lodge in the intimacy of us? The greatest Gift laid into our empty hands... Grace is weightless. Even the winning stars singing it over the manger tramps tonight.
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God comes quiet... This night a battle has been waged and won for you. Love had to come back for you. Love had to get to you. The Love that has been coming for you since the beginning - He slays dragons for you. This is the truest love story of history, and it's His-Story, and it's for you. All the other fairy-tale love stories only echo your yearning for this truest, realest one - this one that has its beginning before the beginning of time. This night, you on this visited planet, your rescue is here. You can breathe.
Your God extends now on straw. He lays himself down in your mire. He unfolds Himself in the stench you want to hide, in that mess that is your impossible, in the mucked straw you don't want anyone to know.
Rejected at the inn, holy God comes in small to where you feel rejected and small. God is with you now. Wherever you are - in a soundless cry or hidden brokenness or in your ache - God always wants to be with you. You are not ever left alone in this. We are never left alone in this; God is with us. This is Love you can't comprehend. You can only feel and touch this kind. There, in the place where you feel rejected, you can be touched by God. There, in the places you feel small, you can touch God. He came in the flesh.
Come kneel close. Let the warm breath of heaven fall on you. God waits to be held. God waits for you to draw close. Grace is weightless. God comes as a Babe because grace is weightless. On a chilled night under stars, there is no grand mass of people whose efforts pry the stars into place. In an obscure caved barn, down some backstreet of Bethlehem, there is no great host whose good works unlatch heaven and impress God into coming. Tonight, at the foot of the cradle of Christ, like at the foot of the Cross of Christ, there are no big people - no powerful, no proud. Tonight there are only those who tramp to the manger with nothing; there are only the manger tramps, the men who lay down all the self-made, the women who lay down all the self-sufficiency, the children who lay down all the wants. We, the manger tramps, who kneel where thrones tremble and demons fall and the self-made crumble and the self-righteous weep.
Tonight there are only the manger tramps, who tramp in with all our poverty of spirit ... so there can be an abundance of God. And the bulk of all your worn shreds slip off the weariness of your back. You have tried to polish enough for Him with these rags. You have tried to patch together so much for Him. You have tried to produce too much for Him with these rags. And you - we - who are the manger tramps see it tonight, what He's written in red on all our filthy rags: But I did it for love. All of conquered heaven and grateful earth echo and throb tonight with the heart cry of the God-Child: I did it for love.
What can all the manger tramps do but wrap the vulnerable God in strips of our bare, broken hearts so He can lodge in the intimacy of us? The greatest Gift laid into our empty hands... Grace is weightless. Even the winning stars singing it over the manger tramps tonight.
- Excerpt from The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp