The Birth: Failure & Recovery

Several years ago while reading Eugene Peterson's translation of Luke 2 from The Message something leaped off the page. He wrote:

"This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted---the pain of a sword-thrust through you---But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are."

It occurred to me that his birth represented a colossal failure----on our part. Because of our sin, God chose to send Jesus. Through our failure, His birth would prove to be the very recovery every one of us would need for our terminal sin-filled condition. The recovery is not about you and me. He initiated our recovery through the incarnation ("God with skin on"). The recovery is about God and His intervention, or as Peterson puts it, His "holy interruption .

How did we ever get so sidetracked to think the recovery is about us? Maybe it's because we are the subjects of sin. But the recovery and healing from sin has absolutely nothing to do with us. It is only because of His grace, mercy, love and glory. The message of Advent is simple: We failed and God initiated our recovery through Jesus.
I've yet to meet a single human being who wasn't in recovery from sin, or needed to be. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! The gift of healing. Praise be to God.

I'm taking a blog break until January 2nd. See you then. Spend time with family and friends, take deep breaths and inhale the wonder and gift of life. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year!