DAILY READING
REFLECTION
O What Wondrous Love
by Mary Kate Hipp
To begin this devotion, I encourage to you click the following link to watch a helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p2XIUK9VgA This is a clip from the show "The Chosen," which engages with Scripture to help us visualize what Jesus' encounters in ministry likely would have looked like. This snippet in particular, portrays Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus from our passage for today.
Wow, what more is there to say after a Word like that? Jesus Christ came for you and for me to save us from our sin and death--this is the Gospel!
The very person who should have understood what Jesus was preaching, a teacher of Israel, struggled to understand the purpose of His ministry. Perhaps I, too "miss the point" of the Gospel even though I was born into a Christian family and now serve in full time ministry. The Gospel is not reserved for those who follow the law to a T. The Gospel is not reserved for those who volunteer the most. The Gospel is not reserved for those who can pronounce the difficult names in the Bible. The Gospel is simple: those who believe will inherit the kingdom. He gave His Son for all that believe. He did not come to condemn or to shame, but to love and to save us. How often do I forget this simple truth? Nicodemus, along with other Biblical authors and scholars, call this a mystery or a wonder. What a wonder it is that God would come down to us and dwell amongst us, that He would love us so fiercely, that He would choose us, that despite our sin and shame He would die for us. Far be it from us to complicate or forget this Good News. May all the earth see the glory of our King. What other God would do such a thing?
Did you catch what Nicodemus said in the reenactment? "My heart is full of fear and wonder."
As we enter this advent season, may you be reminded of Christ's coming, not to condemn us, but to set us free from sin and death. May your heart be full of fear and wonder of the coming King. For in His humble coming, came the forgiveness of sins, relentless love and life everlasting, not because of anything we did or could ever do but because of His great love for us. Rejoice, dear friends, Christ has come and He will come again! O what wondrous love is this!
PRAYER
O God, thank you for coming down to us. Thank you for your great love that I sometimes do not understand. We rejoice because you call us daughters and sons. We rejoice that you will come again. In this advent season, help us to cling to this truth that you love us so dearly. Amen.
