There's this Truth I am learning and cling to like a newborn to it's mother. Words that have echoed through the years of my life, yet they still ring loud & crisp & new.
You see - thousands of years ago a man came to this earth. He was born in the dirt of a stable - afterbirth mixed with animal refuse, seasoned with sweet salt of a virgin mother's tears. In that moment the earth sighed with the relief of True Joy. A melody rang of rescue.
A baby, then a boy, adolescent, then a man. Simple, rugged, rough - but heart tender, strong, and free. And not just a man's heart, one bound in Divine Mystery.
This man was God.
Math got flipped on it's head when He came. No longer was 1 + 1 = 2 true. 1 + 1, one man & one God, were One. (that's not to mention their bosom friend Holy Ghost) And so this man, this God, this math rule-breaker, perfect risk-taker came. And He dwelt among us.
The story speeds up when He starts making friends with fishermen
it gets interesting when He heals a lame man,
it gets scandalous when He talks to an outcast woman at a well,
it gets outrageous when He claims He is the One to the religious big-wigs,
it gets foolish when a woman pours perfume on His dirty feet,
but there is more.
This God & man fusion, fully feeling & fully free - is stripped and stoned, mocked and murdered. And it doesn't end there. While His mother watched him hang on wood, bloody & marred - something was happening beyond.
This is where we enter the story. You and I - we were there. Spirit breathed Word gives testimony to us going down with Him in death, swallowed up - with every slaying word, malicious moment, and lustful thought that clings to us. Bruises, evidence of our spirit-less state.
In the depths of the dark, a wedding aisle was laid out. From the black He led us from death to Life in brilliant white.
So on that day, we were brides. And every second of our lives since then we've played the whore that ran around with Hosea's wife - fleeing perfect Love we fear will see all we really are.
But you see, He has. He came and saw all that this world is, and despite the hurt - He bore it all upon Himself. Diving headlong in to the mouth of Death, He snatched our limp drowning bodies from the darkness and breathed in to our lungs New Life. A Divine Life-giving, strong, resuscitating kiss. Sacred lips to sinner mouth. No longer drowning, breathless - we are Alive. Indulging once dry, empty lungs in Holy breath.
We are made New.
And this is only the Beginning.
