Savoring Christmas one more day!

This was supposed to be for yesterday, but here I am, as usual, a day late and a dollar short! But as the waning moments of the Christmas season slip by and all the joyous decorations are nestled all snug in their storage box beds until next year, I want to stop one last time and ponder the wonder of God breaking into our world as a baby Savior! I love J.B. Phillips story about "The Visited Planet" in which he attempts to give us a behind the scenes look at the incarnation from heaven's viewpoint. A senior angel is showing a younger angel around the infinite distances of the universe and the multiple galaxies until eventually they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars.

"As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

'I want you to watch that one particularly,' said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

'Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,' said the little angel. 'What's special about that one?'"

The senior angel went on to explain that this was the renowned "Visited Planet:"

"'Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince...went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?'...

The little angel's face wrinkled in disgust. 'Do you mean to tell me,' he said, 'that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?'

'I do, and I don't think He would like you to call them 'creeping, crawling creatures' in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, he loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.'

The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension."

And so it is mine. So often I stay busy with laundry and carpools and to do lists and I forget that this world is nothing but a mere shadow of the real world of angels and demons and a great cosmic invisible battle. And the God of the universe at one precise moment in time and history left infinite and incredible wonders and glory and power that I cannot even begin to fathom and came down to this small, dingy little planet to personally engage in the battle on our behalf. How I love the song from "Ceremony of Carols" that declares, "This little babe, so few days old has come to rifle satan's fold. All hell doth at His presence quake though He Himself for cold do shake. For in this weak unarmed wise, the gates of hell He will surprise." A helpless infant challenging the mighty powers of hell. A newborn baby come into the world to defeat death and despair and sin and satan. And all this for us, the ones He made who He knew would betray and reject and ignore and forget Him.

Who can begin to fathom such a thing? What a plan! What a Savior!

So as this new year dawns, this new decade, might we all live daily in the wonder of what He has done and is doing for us. He didn't just visit our little planet, but He came to stay. As one writer put it, He "moved into the neighborhood." Might this be the year when we really get to know and love and worship Him better and better. To God be the glory.