Tuesday, December 26, 2000 He Was Born For This… Isaiah 53:10-“But the Lord (God) was pleased to crush Him (Jesus), putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” Sometimes I think we forget how they ravaged the Child born in a Bethlehem stable, this One they called Emmanuel. Wise men walked for miles showering Him with gifts to praise the coming King, and as He grew the people marveled at His presence, they listened to His message and prayed for His miracles, moved near hoping for just a touch of healing, for something lie within Him, something they had not known before, someone they could only hope for. And even today we sing sweetly tendered carols over and over again, sometimes it seems, so much so, without a thought of where the sin of man would take Him, but if we attend to it carefully, if we ascend to more than dulcet words in a finely structured resonance, it is not hard to see, it would be impossible to miss that Jesus was born for this… Born to be Son of Man and Holy Deity, Son of our tomorrows and Ancient of Days, born to walk a thin-veiled road of Holiness without dignity, born to be reviled and discarded, condemned and afflicted, pierced and trampled, scorned and cut down, shattered and cut off, sent to a grave assigned to the wicked, crushed and given over by God as a guilt offering for our iniquities. Even so, it did not end there, for the grave could not hold Him, the victory has been won, death holds no sting, the Son of Man remains interceding, faithfully reconciling the Father and His children. Yes, He lay there in a manger, the Holy Son of God, and it is right and good that we praise Him for those sweet and tender days, but never must we forget how great the depth of His love, how far the manifest of His grace, how precious the strength of His resolve, for in it we are blessed to know the presence of mercy everlasting, the power of intimate compassion and the worth we are given in His kingdom of peace. It is here, my dear brothers and sisters, that we will fully know Him and the necessity of His calling. Surely, He was born for this… Copyright © 2000 by Cheryl A. Lavender