Posted by giveawayboy on August 23, 2004 at 03:32:31:
This week I was reading some in 1 Corinthians about how Jesus is the Wisdom and Power of God. It is neat how God chooses to reveal himself through things that we people might consider weak or foolish. Also, tonight, David was reading to me from a collection of devotionals. He was reading about Jesus' birth. He read something that mentioned God gasping for air, crying, suckling at the breast of Mary and he mentioned the possible array of animal scents and sounds, not to mention rats and bugs that may have inhabited the stable. It was quite an inconvenient affair I'm sure, having a baby you didn't expect in a situation that was so discreet. David and I then talked about how most kings or rulers would give alot of attention to the birth of a child, and if it was a first born son, they would announce it w fanfare and have many people providing the best possible environment for the child's birth and for the comfort of the mother. Of course the story David read me was extrabiblical and devotional in nature, but it did bring home the mysterious way in which God came to dwell with men, under a cloak of obscurity, announcing the birth by messengers to a few guys out in the countryside. Were these shepherds to be the go-betweens for humanity? His was not the triumphalism of pomp and ceremony. It was direct but in a way we would not have expected. Anyway, these are my rambling late night thoughts.
Peace, Bill