Without telling the contents of my book, I want to share something this morning.
This book had a deep emotional effect on me as I wrote the stories. It touched places in my heart that were wounded and weary and some that were healthy and whole. There is a story within the book that addresses the fatherhood of God. Not the "He is Father of us all" aspect, but the fact that He was Jesus' father personally.
The story is about a special visit to the nativity. Writing it spurred my thinking and I did some digging and I am again shocked at what I missed all these years growing up.
Most of my life, I never looked at the birth of Jesus from a biological standpoint. I think I just assumed God created a baby, placed it carefully in Mary's womb one day and she gave birth to Him...like a surrogate mother...or a male seahorse. Growing up, if I thought of Mary's role at all, she was a glorified kangaroo with someone else's baby in her pouch.
This thinking caused me to miss God as the Father and as the Daddy, of the baby in the manger. That was a shame and I am glad I have seen the truth.
Luke chapter one verse thirty says (of Mary) "You will conceive a son, and call his name Jesus". Conceive. It means that it was Mary's egg. God only ever created one man ex-niholo (out of nothing) that was Adam. In fact even that wasn't truly out of nothing because He formed him out of dirt and then breathed life into him. But every human born since then was conceived in the womb of a mother. Her egg, fertilized by the baby's father and you have a baby. The same is true with Jesus.
The egg was all Mary's. That is where Jesus got His humanity from. Remember we are quite fond of saying he was "all God and all man". Well it's true, and it's true because Mary conceived. Mary didn't just lug him around until time to give birth. Half of Him was her.
This places a larger image of God as a daddy in my mind. And once I grasped this it was easy for me to write this story. It also explains, a little better, God's frequent pronouncements of His love for His son, and his frequent prophecies of the immense blessings He has yet to bestow on Him in His coming Kingdom. Jesus was God's offspring. It's hard to comprehend and I won't try, but assume it for the purposes of understanding how God must have felt that night. This was his son. And at that moment perhaps God himself was the only being in the universe who knew what fate awaited this little wonder. It gives me a new perspective on the love He has for Jesus...and for us.
I anticipated my daughters arrival for 9 months. I was there as she made her entrance. I held her for almost 4 hours after she arrived and my heart was never the same. How could I have done that had I known she would be butchered for the crimes someone else committed? How could I have endured the knowledge of her awful fate while holding her tiny form? How could I have permitted my little angel to be born in such squalor and poverty...all for the sake of someone else?
I could not. Now I know why God is love.
This book had a deep emotional effect on me as I wrote the stories. It touched places in my heart that were wounded and weary and some that were healthy and whole. There is a story within the book that addresses the fatherhood of God. Not the "He is Father of us all" aspect, but the fact that He was Jesus' father personally.
The story is about a special visit to the nativity. Writing it spurred my thinking and I did some digging and I am again shocked at what I missed all these years growing up.
Most of my life, I never looked at the birth of Jesus from a biological standpoint. I think I just assumed God created a baby, placed it carefully in Mary's womb one day and she gave birth to Him...like a surrogate mother...or a male seahorse. Growing up, if I thought of Mary's role at all, she was a glorified kangaroo with someone else's baby in her pouch.
This thinking caused me to miss God as the Father and as the Daddy, of the baby in the manger. That was a shame and I am glad I have seen the truth.
Luke chapter one verse thirty says (of Mary) "You will conceive a son, and call his name Jesus". Conceive. It means that it was Mary's egg. God only ever created one man ex-niholo (out of nothing) that was Adam. In fact even that wasn't truly out of nothing because He formed him out of dirt and then breathed life into him. But every human born since then was conceived in the womb of a mother. Her egg, fertilized by the baby's father and you have a baby. The same is true with Jesus.
The egg was all Mary's. That is where Jesus got His humanity from. Remember we are quite fond of saying he was "all God and all man". Well it's true, and it's true because Mary conceived. Mary didn't just lug him around until time to give birth. Half of Him was her.
This places a larger image of God as a daddy in my mind. And once I grasped this it was easy for me to write this story. It also explains, a little better, God's frequent pronouncements of His love for His son, and his frequent prophecies of the immense blessings He has yet to bestow on Him in His coming Kingdom. Jesus was God's offspring. It's hard to comprehend and I won't try, but assume it for the purposes of understanding how God must have felt that night. This was his son. And at that moment perhaps God himself was the only being in the universe who knew what fate awaited this little wonder. It gives me a new perspective on the love He has for Jesus...and for us.
I anticipated my daughters arrival for 9 months. I was there as she made her entrance. I held her for almost 4 hours after she arrived and my heart was never the same. How could I have done that had I known she would be butchered for the crimes someone else committed? How could I have endured the knowledge of her awful fate while holding her tiny form? How could I have permitted my little angel to be born in such squalor and poverty...all for the sake of someone else?
I could not. Now I know why God is love.
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