Thoughts on the Incarnation

It's Advent.

It's dark at 4:30pm.

Our purple candle and wooden Mary-on-donkey are making their nightly journey around the spiral to Bethelem.

We light the candles in the wreath, read the scriptures, place the ornaments on our Jesse tree, and pass out the chocolates from behind the little numbered doors.

We cut down a tree, address cards to faraway friends and family, and listen to music heard only in December.

In so many ways, we prepare our hearts, our home, and our children to celebrate the coming of Christ.

And, this year, I am filled with thoughts of the Incarnation. My mind is filled with images not of a tiny baby in a manger, but of the Creator of the Universe. I consider this Being, this One with no beginning and no end, the One who started it all, and can -- someday, may -- end it all.

What is it about this One that He chose to put on human flesh? Why leave the perfection and peace of Heaven to walk among us, the dirty, dusty, cold, sad, hardened, weak and broken?

I know all of the usual answers to these questions: love, reconciliation, peace, longing for one-ness with us.

But, this year, I can't resist asking why? Were we worth it? Are we worth it?

In His place, would I choose the same thing? Would I choose to leave perfection and peace, to set aside my own comfort and agenda for another?



Hmmm... it's probably a very good thing that I am not the Creator of the Universe.