{"id":24768,"date":"2018-12-25T03:30:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T11:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=24768"},"modified":"2018-12-19T11:48:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T19:48:05","slug":"december-25-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/12\/25\/december-25-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"December 25, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cAnd the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>John 1:14<\/p>\n

Outside, Looking In<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We all remember those adolescent years\u2014our dreams born of youthful inexperience, our self-conscious, self-absorbed nature encountering the real-world reality that some people we admired would never look our way, that some things we wished for would never come to us, and that some situations in life were out of our control. Looking back as Christian adults, we know that these were things that God, in His wisdom, did not ordain for us to decide.<\/p>\n

I distinctly remember the feeling of being on the outside, looking in\u2014looking into groups of kids I didn\u2019t belong to, and into the lives of my parents when they were away from home at their workplaces, and even coming to grips with my teachers having homes and spouses and children when they were away from school.<\/p>\n

This feeling came back to me recently when I was on strict orders for armchair rest for an extended time. I would look out the window at life passing by. Cars carrying folks places\u2014probably doing the Christmas shopping I was unable to do. Children running around and laughing. Birds flying through the blue expanses. I was again on the outside looking in\u2014watching others live their lives, not being a part of it.<\/p>\n

The trouble with being on the outside looking in is that we feel invisible. Others are living a life that is not our life.<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t exactly say God has ever been on the outside, looking in. We know He is everywhere at once\u2014omnipresent. But when we consider His incarnation\u2014the birth of Christ\u2014we see God\u2019s desire to live among us in flesh and blood. He did, indeed, live without us in heaven, but the appointed day came when He inhabited a body and lived among the human race. Before that day He was physically invisible, but at His birth, and throughout His human life, He lived among us.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(John 1:18).<\/p>\n

God Incarnate. Real. Visible as \u201cflesh and blood\u201d\u2014both of which He gave for us.<\/p>\n

Body killed.<\/p>\n

Blood spilled.<\/p>\n

Yet living still\u2026.<\/p>\n

Living among us. The concept is too big to understand: God in the flesh, dying for us, yet living as the Son in the bosom of the Father. I cannot grasp it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat words can we use to express our gratitude? You wanted us to see Your glory, full of grace and truth. You wanted us to know You. You wanted to live among us\u2014and so You came. And in Your coming, we are no longer outside, looking in, but we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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