Things incomprehensible—
Merry Monday by Parris Bailey
Luke 1:48 “God took one good look at me, and look what happened-I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten,”
“It is the nature of God to make something out of nothing; therefore, when anyone is nothing, God may yet make something of him.” Martin Luther
Lange’s Commentary says; “God brings his counsel to pass in silence, without leaving the threads of web in mortal hands. God and man, the old and the new covenants, heaven and earth, meet in a poor manger. The lowly birth of the Saviour of the world coincides exactly with the nature of his kingdom. The origin of this kingdom was not of this earth, it’s fundamental law was to deny itself, and for love to serve others; its end; to become great through abasement, and to triumph by conflict, all this is here exhibited before our eyes as incomprehensible. Why did our Lord choose a stable? Evidently that He might reprove the glory of the world, and condemn the vanities of this present life. His very infant body has its speech!”
Who doesn’t love the story of Christmas? God showing up ever so quietly and ever so lowly. Hidden away in a manger, beaming a star in the sky night over our heads. While we lay sleeping he is always working redemption. I also love how Mary responded to the angel’s visitation. Mary says, “And my Spirit hath Rejoiced in God my Savior”. We have seen what is meant by “spirit”-it is her whole life and being, mind and strength that begins to esteem Him highly. It is that which lays hold, by faith, things incomprehensible. Mary’s song of thanksgiving is uttered long before Zachariah, faith is already singing for joy, while unbelief is compelled to be silent. (Lange’s) May we too be silenced if need be, so faith can incubate in us, and when we do open our mouths it is in glory to God!
Things incomprehensible- now that’s quite a word. Isaiah announced, in his eleventh chapter: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the Holy Spirit shall rest upon him.” In other words God was going to make a branch come out of a dead tree stump. Mary understood this when she begin to make room for God. She, being the tree stump, made room for “things incomprehensible”. God loves to live in the depths or the things unseen, we humans grab a hold of the tangible or the seen.
I feel too many of us live in the external world surrounded with the many talking heads all saying nothing really. Why are we holding on to what was said or done to us years ago when our space should be filled with “things incomprehensible.” Meaning, fill your space with Him. Enough of the “blah, blah, blah.” I want to be wise and see the star that is yelling out to me to look up and wonder, I want to be Mary who enlarges her spirit to take more of him in, and when I’m sitting around a campfire letting the fire warm me, I pray I would be lost in amazement at the angel’s song. Things incomprehensible- why not start now and be like Anna and Simeon who waited for the consolation of Israel.