Music Notes

As I sit and write this, I can hear the sounds of my four-year-old nephew playing downstairs. He and his family are visiting for Thanksgiving. As many of you may know, he has a rare autoimmune blood disease, and Pastor Russell has mentioned him in prayer on numerous occasions. It is wonderful to see him, and to see that in spite of intense chemotherapy treatments, he is just as active as any four year old boy can be. And although I do not have children of my own yet, and cannot fully appreciate the role of a parent, it certainly pains me to think of him suffering with this illness.

I can’t begin to imagine how God must have felt sending His only Son here to earth at Christmas. True, it was a joyous occasion, where angels sang and Heaven met Earth in a way that had never or will never happen again. God became a baby—helpless and fragile. God became one of us, sending Jesus to live as a man. I’m sure it pained him, as God knew what would lay ahead for Jesus. The pain, agony, and torment that Jesus would have to endure, and even moreso, the separation they would experience when Jesus died on the cross. The amazing thing about it is the reason all of this occurred.

God did it for us. Christmas is all about recounting and celebrating the love that God had for us in sending His most prized thing – His son. I’m sure it pains parents terribly to see one of their children suffering, and it was truly a sacrifice for God to send us His Son. Yet the ending of the saga has not yet finished. As we recall the first Advent, we know that God will once again come to earth, but this time not as a helpless baby to live and die a brutal death, to be raised again in a miraculous way. This time, He will be coming as a mighty King, and the pain and suffering that we experience in this life will be forever removed, and we will forever be in God’s presence. That is truly something about which we can sing, as the angels did long ago, “Glory in the Highest!” So this Christmas, let us not just look for Jesus in the manger, but let us anticipate His coming once again in all of His glory.