It was so good to worship the Lord yesterday. I felt awake and alive and NOT SICK! I’m amazed at how the physical dimension affects the spiritual one.  It seems highly unspiritual and like it shouldn’t be so. Shouldn’t I be able to worship wholeheartedly even if I feel awful? Of course we still worship Him no matter how we feel, but you have to agree it’s different when our physical bodies cooperate.

On May 1st God led me into a powerful, amazing season. My prayer life had increased life and vigor. There was definitely a huge spiritual dimension to it, but when Pete asked me what was up my answer was that Hezekiah was now sleeping through the night and I was rested. He was like, no… I mean, in the spirit. I said that I knew what he meant, but sleep played a big role. That sounds… not truly exciting, like maybe it wasn’t a real encounter with the Lord, but it was. The physical dimension was aiding the spiritual one.

Why is it like this? Because we were made as physical beings.  Someday, my friends, we will not be floating around as some vapor but we’ll have resurrected bodies. Really cool ones. Bodies! God’s ultimate plan for our eternal future is physical. In that day, our bodies will only serve to bring us closer to the Lord, to help us experience His presence and pleasure. In the church, we downplay this, but Paul seemed pretty excited about it. It was a big deal to the apostle.

God became man. He stepped into human frame. He embraced the weakness of the human body. He touched this earth, smelt it, tasted imperfect and bland food, saw the creation He created in all of it’s bondage and corruption, heard the wind. He got His hands dirty. He got all up in our stuff, our world.  It’s normal to us, but He remembered Eden. He knew that creation was under bondage, groaning for Him to set it free.

He lived in hiddeness, not for just a few years, but for 30. He did mundane tasks. People likely bossed him around, treating him like any other carpenter. He didn’t count it as beneath Him. He didn’t quit His boring work because He was better than it. Every person He saw, He remembered making them in the womb.

I can’t get over it – the utter miracle of the incarnation. God who are You? Jesus, how can I be too proud to accept help when the creator of the universe came as a baby, letting His mother attend to His every NEED? How can God have need? If you want to know what humility looks like, look at the manger.

This is my King. This is my God. A man. With a physical frame. God, sovereign and holy. Coming lowly. Coming again in jealousy.

Merry Christmas Eve.