By Pastor Steve Nickodemus

In a Humble Manger

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As I stood in the redwood grove, my eyes went up and up, following the majestic trees to where they towered hundreds of feet into the air, arching like a giant canopy above me.  Standing in that grove under those mighty trees took my eyes from the ground, from the mundane around me, and set my heart and mind upon things above.  As I looked up into the heavens this verse came to me,

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!”
Isaiah 64:1 New International Version

Who am I, an insignificant mortal upon this earth?  What can I possibly do about the enormous problems of sin and hate and anger and injustice?  What can I do about the pain of this world, the agonizing cry of hopelessness among billions of people?  If only God would come down!  If only the Lord would come into this world!  Oh, that He would confront the crises of this world!

And then I remembered…. He has.  He has come into this world.  He came to confront the root of this world’s problems in the only possible way that could bring a solution.  He came as a little child, born of a virgin, born under the law to redeem those under the law.  He came to offer Himself as the Sacrifice for sinners, to pay the price for sin which none of us could pay.

This is Jesus, God’s Son come into this world to redeem us.  This is the Christ, the Lord of the universe who humbled Himself to save me.  This is Emmanuel, God with us, the Lamb of God born in a manger.  This is God’s answer to the cry of the world, this is how God has come to us. Amen.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado