humility

When Christmas rolls around each year, the Holy Spirit seems to put a theme on my heart and lets me chew on possibilities. One year I reflected on what Mary must have gone through. Did she consider carrying the Messiah to be the biggest honor of all or was she a little bit worried about what others would say since she was pregnant before her betrothal? Did she feel like she needed to be the "perfect" mommy to the savior of the world, or did she feel a sense of freedom since he was the sovereign savior of the world? Did she feel the same towards her other children that she would eventually bear, or did Jesus, "God with us" always hold a special place in her heart? Just questions I would love to ask Mary one day!

This year, I have been wondering what must have been going on in Jesus's mind before he came to the earth to be born as a human of all things. Did he know from the beginning of time that this is what it would come to? Did his Father reveal it to him later? If he knew, did he start to get cold feet about the whole idea? Trading glory for humility is not an easy thing. I just can't grasp it all!

"Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion."

(from Philippians chapter 2)

How can you be God and yet not consider equality with God something to be grasped? If you are indeed God, how do you go about making yourself nothing? His humility absolutely blows my mind apart. What terrifies me is that my attitude should reflect the same selfless attitude of Christ's. Overwhelmed at that thought, I will save that idea for another day.

Jesus and the humility of leaving the intimacy of His Father's side to be obedient to His Father and to rescue us from true death. Now that is something to chew on! Such love. I cannot even fathom this love.