12/24/12

A piece of work


I never went beyond stick figures, so the above drawing is amazing to me.  Especially since it was done with a ball-point pen!!!  I can only marvel at the creative ability of the artist!!!  When I think of such things, it is only natural that I think about the creative process itself and then to how I was made.  I am not speaking of the physical act of reproduction, but rather the complexity of DNA and how God has designed how I should be made.  Yes, God knows every aspect of both my body and that which makes up my "self" as well!!!  Today, most of the known world is thinking about the baby Jesus and his birth, so these two passages came to mind...

 Psalm 139
  1  Yahweh, you have searched me,
and you know me.
  2 You know my sitting down and my rising up.
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
  3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
  4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
  5 You hem me in behind and before.
You laid your hand on me.
  6 This knowledge is beyond me.
It’s lofty.
I can’t attain it.
  7 Where could I go from your Spirit?
Or where could I flee from your presence?
  8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
  9 If I take the wings of the dawn,
and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;
  10 Even there your hand will lead me,
and your right hand will hold me.
  11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me;
the light around me will be night”;
  12 even the darkness doesn’t hide from you,
but the night shines as the day.
The darkness is like light to you.
  13 For you formed my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
  14 I will give thanks to you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful.
My soul knows that very well.
  15 My frame wasn’t hidden from you,
when I was made in secret,
woven together in the depths of the earth.
  16 Your eyes saw my body.
In your book they were all written,
the days that were ordained for me,
when as yet there were none of them.

  17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is their sum!
  18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.
  19 If only you, God, would kill the wicked.
Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
  20 For they speak against you wickedly.
Your enemies take your name in vain.
  21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you?
Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
  22 I hate them with perfect hatred.
They have become my enemies.
  23 Search me, God, and know my heart.
Try me, and know my thoughts.
  24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way.

Matthew, Chapter 1
   18  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this; for after his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  19 Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.  20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  21 She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”

 If God is fully acquainted me, how much more was HE with Jesus?  It must have been hard to humble himself to allow Jesus to come into the world. And all for us; every part of us and everything we have done or will ever do in this existence.  But, the baby Jesus was but a precursor to what was to come.  The man Jesus loved his heavenly father as all human beings should-with his whole heart; unabashedly, totally and enthusiastically!  As a man, his obedience brought the possibility of eternal life to all, everywhere.  The question before us is what will we do with THE MAN JESUS?  Will we acknowledge what he did for us by obeying his GOSPEL, or just think of him as a little baby in a manger?  Your choice, your fate... choose wisely!!!!