Ancient Words to Nurture Your Spirit at Christmas
Words that nurture your spirit...don't you just love it when you read something in your daily devotional and it soars up out of your spirit to sparkle your day? Kinda reminds me of Isaiah 40:31 where we "mount up with wings like eagles" and see a bigger picture of our life than we did before.These words on the incarnation did that for me. They are ancient words by some of those who have gone before us, but they brought the wonder of God becoming human into my day, making my world seem larger than it was yesterday. I hope they do the same for you—nurturing your spirit and sparkling your life.
Ancient Words to Nurture Your Spirit
The Scripture: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:1,14).The human race was made God's likeness, but, since we lost that form, God took our human likeness this night, when he was born. -Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664)You wanted to be God, although you were human, and so you were lost. He wanted to be human, although he was God, so that he could look for what was lost. Your human pride struck you down with such force that only the humility of God could make you rise up again. -Augustine (Bishop of Hippo, d. 430)When the time had come that God had previously chosen for the redemption of humankind, his Son, Jesus Christ lodged on our lowly earth. He, the incomprehensible one, wanted to be grasped. He who was before all time took his beginning in time. He who was invisible in his being became visible in our flesh. The God who was incapable of suffering was not ashamed to be a human being capable of suffering. The God who was immortal submitted himself to the law of death. -Leo the Great (Pope, d. 461)Gold, friend, power and honor—nothing can make us so happy as the joyful news that Christ became man. The human heart can scarcely conceive it and we can certainly not talk enough about it. To do such a thing and let us hear about it, God must love us with all his heart. He must love me because he comes so close to me, because he became human with me. He became what I am. -Martin Luther (1483-1546)
It's so amazing that a short part of Scripture can feed your spirit as it obviously did for each of these ancient writers. Of course, since the Word is spirit it also is one of our main sources for nurturing our spirits (see John 6:63). Jesus is like that, you know—words on a page—morphing into food for our spirit—morphing into his image within us.What are you reading to nurture your spirit this Christmas season? Just a few passages of Scripture can nurture your spirit in the midst of this busy season. Don't miss the reason for the season.(Last week I posted the first of this series on nurturing your spirit for Christmas. This is the second post in the series.) Hugs.Interested in a look at more holy in the daily during the season of Advent? Scroll down through a group of posts here."Jesus likes it when we share." -Adelaide, age 3: Pass this along to everybody and their brother. OK, maybe not everybody's brother, but you know . . . all of your friends would be nice.