As you listen to this beautiful version...prayerfully pay attention to the second and third verses...that go:
Christ by highest heav'n adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold Him come,
offspring of the virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
Hark, the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
ris'n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth.
The thought that springs out of this version/video for me is that line: "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail (praise) the incarnate (in the flesh) Deity, pleased as us with us to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel (which means God with us/God for us)". Those line take a life time to really soak in, saturate, sink into our soul. We so often think of God as out there, separate, different and distinctive and distant. God can't be here in our lives! We exclaim. God can't be here when this isn't perfect. God can't be here with all the racism, sexism, discrimination against LGBTQ brothers and sisters. God can't possibly put up with us like this. Obviously, if God was here, things would be better.
A couple of things to such a line of thinking. Kent Dobson reminds us that, "We are not a problem to God." We are not some burden, some obligation, some mistake. Just as God is a mystery to us, I believe, we can be a mystery to God. Yes, God fashioned, formed, loved us into being. But I believe we are endlessly interesting to God. Consider God close as our next breath wondering, "Curious that Wes decides to do this or say that..." Or God with joy saying, "Yes, that whole unconditional part of love might actually be breaking through words like, 'worthiness' or 'expectations'". After all, what part of unconditional do we not get?
God enters in not when everything was at its most perfect. Remember, Caesar was still oppressing and crucifying people. Herod was still a tyrant. Life was still stressful and painful. People still fought and biases built walls between people. Suddenly, I am not just describing then and there two thousand years ago, I am talking about here and now. We still let unprocessed pain get passed along, we still hurt and harm one another with careless words, we still are saying, "They...those people... are the problem." But, if Kent is right, then not only are you not a problem to God...neither is that person. Perhaps that is why we still hold the mystery of the incarnation...God's love coming so close. Because good news like that can't be controlled or confined...it breaks out and breaks down any conditions we want to put on it. And if it is good news for us and others...that could change everything. And the truth of this Carol proclaims...is that it still does.
Prayer: God, let Your presence with me help me notice and name that You are also with all people. Amen.
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