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Today's Quote
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Today's Verse
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Daily Wisdom
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Without doubt, Christians point to the incarnation as the hinge of history. No event can outshine that moment when God became man and dwelt among men. It is a great mystery that C. S. Lewis calls the Grand Miracle -- the miracle of miracles. As we read the Arabian Nights we are amazed that a great genie could come out of a tiny lamp. Such stories, however, pale in comparison, to the creator of the universe coming through millions of galaxies to the Milky Way, descending to a tiny star at its perimeter, selecting a bit of dust orbiting that star, and becoming a man.
Such a momentous event should have been marked by wonders in the heavens above and upheavals on the earth below. Instead, this mighty epic-making transformation was destined to be carried out in an obscure village, in a humble cottage, by a young Jewish maiden at prayer. (Luke 1:29-31) An angel said to her, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. . . . Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus."
When heads of state travel they are protected by bullet proof glass and steel, the secret service , and the military. When God became a man he became a helpless child entrusted to a young mother.
She bore him, swaddled him, nursed him, and trained him, and at a wedding in Galilee she pushed him into the limelight even though he told her that his time had not yet come. She simply turned to the servants standing by and said, "Do whatever he tells you." Jesus, then, performed his first public miracle (John 2).
She followed his ministry, saw him mistreated, and finally imprisoned. She heard him make one of his disciples her guardian and then watched him die on a Roman cross. Jesus' earthly life began, was lived, and ultimately ended with one of those wonderful jewels that grace the lives of each one of us -- a mother.
