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Every day this Advent we will be sharing reflections from Christian authors. Today's is by Paul Tripp.
I love Christmas. I love the excitement of the season, the gift giving, Christmas cookies, decorating the biggest tree we can get in our home, the special moments with people whom I love, but most of all the deep, encouraging, humbling, and hope-giving story that is at the heart of this season. I can remember as a little boy the excitement that would begin to grow as my mom and my grandma began making dozens and dozens of cookies. And I remember how my excitement would elevate as my dad began to drag out the Christmas decorations. But maybe the thing I loved the most was the music. Sure, I liked hearing all those silly seasonal songs as we went shopping in downtown Toledo, but what I loved then and love even more now are those rich hymns about the birth of Jesus. I learned them as a boy, but I understand them today, line by line, in a way I never did during all the excitement of those boyhood Christmases.
There is something particularly glorious about the hymns that explain and define the significance of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Words like “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity” or “He comes to make his blessing ow far as the curse is found” or “Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace” shimmer with glory. This makes sense because they echo the glory song that the angels first sang on the night when the most glorious thing in history happened: God took on human form. Let these words ring in your heart for a moment: God took on human form. God became a man. Deity took on humanity. Glory came to earth in common human form. If you or I had been writing the big redemptive story, we would have never conceived something so amazing and miraculous as God actually coming on a rescue mission as a real human person. There is only one word that captures this one amazing, history-altering event: glory.
The angels, as they sang their glory song that night, began the singing of a glory song that would never end. God’s people have penned and sung glory songs about Jesus ever since. Whenever and wherever they gather, they sing together of the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, the promises, the presence, the power, and the grace of Jesus. Around the world hearts lift and hope comes rushing in as melodies carry the precious truths of God’s most wonderful gift to us, the gift of his Son.
On into eternity the song echoes. It is the celebration chant of the redeemed. And one day we will join that multitude, no longer looking forward in hope but looking back with the security of redemption accomplished, and with the angels and the saints of old we too will sing glory songs about Jesus forever and ever and ever. Yes, it is true: that night the angels began a song that will never ever end. The Savior who rescued your heart now claims your song. Have you joined the choir?
Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp: Every time the Christmas season comes around, we look forward to putting up a tree, giving and receiving gifts, and participating in other traditions that make this wonderful time of year so special. But sometimes the most significant aspect of the season--remembering and focusing on the coming of Jesus--grows old and familiar. In Come Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional, Paul Tripp seeks to recapture our attention and reawaken our awe during Christmastime.
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