Once-in-a-lifetime Day

12-12-12… By now you’ve probably read a zillion Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, news articles, and more about today’s date. 

The last repetitive date we’ll ever see. A once-in-a-lifetime day. 

I wonder how many weddings took place today? How many babies were born on this day, 12-12-12? What an exceptional date to mark a new beginning.

We celebrate another once-in-a-lifetime event this month as well. The miraculous day God himself traveled through time and space to become one of us, veiled in human flesh. 

Do you realize he gazed up at the same moon we see in our sky over 2,000 years later? 

He who spoke the stars into existence observed them as a boy, mesmerized by their beauty?

He felt the warmth of the sun on his face, swam in the salty sea, played tag with his friends and did everything that we once did as children. 

He cried the same tears that we do, he yelped in pain when he pounded his thumb with a hammer, and he savored a favorite meal made by his mother. 

Emmanuel. God with us. 

This is surely cause to rejoice this Christmas and every Christmas. Every day of the year, for that matter.

He knows us, deeply. Because he was – he is – one of us. 

He took on our skin so he would forever know what it felt like to be dust. 

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14

He remembers.

This Christmas, let’s find joy in this simple fact: He remembers. And he has compassion.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16