Monday, December 22, 2014

"The God of the Unlikely"



"The God of the Unlikely"


    In the birth of His only begotten Son, the Lord revealed to us that He is the God of the unlikely.

    "He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, He hath no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isaiah 53:2).

    How unlikely that the King of the universe should be born in a stable usually reserved for animals.  How unlikely the nation that so long awaited her Messiah should miss the fulfillment of her dreams and reject her only salvation.  How unlikely that this Messiah should live the majority of His life in obscurity without the pomp and circumstance befitting royalty, and without the obvious appeal we might expect.  Most of all, how unlikely that such a One should die in shame and degradation, apparently discarded upon the trashheap of history as just another well-intentioned zealot without the means to accomplish His desired end.

    This is the glory of Christmas, the glory that fills the present as well as the past.  How unlikely that the humiliated is now the Glorified, and the possessor of that Name at which all will one day bow.  How unlikely that the Satan who instigated His seeming destruction became the unwitting servant of the One who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).  How unlikely that tragedy should lead to triumph in the purposes of the One in whom all wisdom resides.  Perhaps most unlikely of all, how unlikely that God in His wisdom should determine to fill the seemingly marred, broken, and useless vessels we appear to be for the purposes of enabling us to "walk, even as He walked" (I John 2:6).  How unlikely and how wonderful that His strength is made perfect in weakness in order that He alone may be glorified as He leads us in His presence and faithfulness.

    He is the God of the unlikely, the God who requires mangers in which to birth His beloved Son rather than the pristine palaces we might anticipate.  Let us expect to find Him in the mangers of our lives and worlds, those circumstances, situations, and people where we least expect Him to be.  Our Lord often reveals the glory of His presence in direct proportion to the appearance of His absence, and let us rejoice that through the Christ of Christmas, we have found our King in the most unlikely place of all…

"It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me."
(Galatians 1:15; 16)

Weekly Memory Verse
    For unto us a child dis born unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder.  And His name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace.
(Isaiah 9:6)
    






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