Unfathomable Love

I wonder what it would have been like the day Christ took off His heavenly garments and entered the womb of a woman as an embryo. I can't even fathom what "heavenly garments" are, but as I think about it those are the only words that seem to begin to describe something God would wear. I think of passages in the Old Testament where people had the terrifyingly wonderful privilege of actually seeing God.

I think of Ezekiel who saw God, and just the description of His throne denotes a grandeur that, when thought about, literally leaves me breathless. God is described as glowing and with a halo all around him like a rainbow shining through on a rainy day. His beauty so great, Ezekiel feel down in His presence. That is the beauty Jesus was enthroned in before He entered a human womb... When Isaiah stood in the physical presence of God, he was so humbled by God's greatness he cried out, " Woe is me! For I am undone and ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" God's presence is so powerful, when we are aware of and surrounded by it, we have no choice but to realize how small we are. And when we are aware of this, if we don't rest in His unfathomable love, we would be crushed. That is the very greatness Christ was surrounded in from the beginning of time... That was the greatness He chose to allow to remain veiled while He entered humanity... When He became human, did He actually step down from His heavenly throne? What does God wear, and did He actually have to remove remove it to become a human? Did it hurt? to become human... I can't imagine... The whole time Jesus knew what lay head of Him. He knew He would be rejected. He knew He would be beaten. He knew the mother He would love so dearly would be labeled whore because of Him. He knew His earthly father would die before he did. He knew He would be betrayed and let down by His closest friends. He knew He would go without food for 40 days and then have to deal with temptation that came directly from the evil one. He knew He would have nails driven in His body after the harshest of beatings... But He still did it... I think of all this and am overwhelmed by His great love for the Father, for the church, and for me...

What those precious baby eyes would have known. There is nothing more fragile and nothing brings out the desire to protect like a baby. And God, with all His glory and spender chose, I mean He chose, to become frail and completely dependent on others, knowing they would not do everything perfectly. Knowing they would react sometimes in anger and frustration because they are human and knowing He would bear the consequences of their mistakes... Knowing He would one day bear the weight of all the sin of all of humanity on Himself and knowing what that actually meant, God became human. He traded His overwhelming glory for a fallen human body that aches when it works too hard and get sick when it eats the wrong thing... Because He knew the joy that awaited Him, the joy that still awaits Him and those of us who follow Him, He left heaven. Came to earth. Lived like us, and died for us... What an unfathomable love...