2021 Daily Devotion - Day 421

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My friend recently told me an amazing story about her father who lives in Michigan. He was struggling with his faith. One evening, after the family left for church, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound...then another, and then another. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

He didn’t want the poor creatures to lie there and freeze. So he ran to the barn, opened the doors wide and turned on a light. But the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow.

He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let him help. And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he was a strange and terrifying creature. "If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid and show them the way to the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could understand."

At that moment, the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. He stood there listening to the bells, and then sank to his knees in the snow. He understood. The capacity of Jesus to reveal God to us and to bring salvation depends upon His being fully God and fully man at the same time.

The theological term for the coming of God into the world as a human being is “Incarnation”. The term itself is not used in the Bible, but it is based on clear references in the New Testament to Jesus as a person "in the flesh”.

Hebrews 2:17
Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Pray with me:
Thank you, Father, for loving us so much that You came to us in human form through Your son, Jesus. Through Him we have received salvation. Your grace is amazing. In His holy name, we pray. Amen.

Pam Nelson
Sunday Adult Education Instructor & Choir Member
Mount of Olives Church
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