This past week I read a quote and also listened to a Christmas song that started me pondering about God's gift wrapping for me and for you.
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Jesus was God's Christmas gift in the person of deity wrapped in the package of humanity. |
Following are the two stanzas of the song followed by the chorus. The name of the song is "He Took the Form of Man" by Bill Batson. A beautiful song.
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One day an infant cry
In a troubled land
Joined the host on high
In Peace, good will toward men.
Jesus, lowly born
Brought riches to this earth.
The Lord of heaven came down
Risking human birth.
CHORUS
God's thoughts and ways are not our own
And I can't understand.
Why He wrapped His love in flesh and blood
And He took the form of man. |
Following are a few ponderings on God's gift wrapping for me and for you.
THE SON WRAPPED IN GLORY
THE CHILD WRAPPED IN SWADDLING CLOTHES
Unto you a child is born,
Unto you a Son is given (Isaiah 9:6a)
This verse from Isaiah is such an amazing testimony of both the deity and humanity of Christ! Jesus is the eternal Son of God wrapped up, if you might say, in the Trinity...wrapped with the very glory of God.
And when He was born a child, His glory was wrapped in His little newborn body first given to us wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:7).
His body veiled His glory, but did not hide His glory. His glory was revealed to those who would receive it by faith.
John 1:14 says that when Jesus became flesh, He dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
THE SON WRAPPED IN LINEN CLOTHS
I think it is interesting that many gifts are wrapped with ribbon in the form of a cross. And it is interesting that red is the most popular color for ribbon - a reminder of the blood of Christ.
God gave Jesus for us on the cross. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Whereas the baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths, the crucified Jesus was wrapped in linen cloths. Joseph of Arimathea took the crucified body of Jesus and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in a new tomb (Matthew 27:59-60). John 19:39 tells us that Nicodemus also came to help Joseph of Arimathea.
Both of these men were prominent Jews who had been drawn to the glory of God in Jesus and were secretly following Jesus in fear of retaliation and ridicule.
However, after the crucifixion of Jesus, both of these men were given courage by God to boldly and reverently bury the body of Christ.
In God's perfect way, these men also provide us with historical evidence that the body of Christ was indeed taken directly to the tomb to dispel any attempts to claim His body was stolen and not resurrected.
I can only imagine the emotions of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus as they carried the lifeless body of Christ:
Perhaps they tenderly wiped the tears from the face of Christ's body before they lifted it to carry it to the tomb.
Perhaps they impulsively hugged His body and cried under their breath, "Oh my dear Lord" as they embraced His body to lift it up.
Perhaps they carried His body with their heads held high yet with tears streaming down their faces.
I suspect they carried His body with a pensive gaze looking only toward to the tomb, oblivious to the holy hush from the crowds of people looking on.
And they just had to think profoundly about the blood of Christ on their hands and clothes as they carried His body...the blood that had just been shed for their sins and for the sins of the whole world.
CLOSING
THE GLORY OF GOD WRAPPED IN YOU
We, too, are called to know Christ crucified in such a profoundly personal and reverential way as characterized by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
Indeed God gave Jesus for us on the cross but, ultimately, God gave Jesus to us through the cross and resurrection.
Romans 6 emphasizes that God the Father baptized (united) us with His Son in His death, burial, and resurrection! We were re-created by God to be new persons in union with the risen Christ and indwelt by Him.
Ponder this: Now your life and my life are God's wrappings for the gift of Jesus Christ in us!
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure (the gift of Christ) in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not us. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).
May others behold the glory of Christ in and through our sacrificial lives for them. May others receive the gift of Christ from and through us all year round.
God's Gift Wrapping 
