Promised...

Have you ever waited on the delivery of a promise? One day you'll be big enough to ride that roller coaster...one day you'll get to have your own room...I promise that I'll be back soon.

Promises are important...they hold meaning for us because we put trust in not only the words that someone says to us, but in the person who says them.  If promises go unfulfilled, we lose trust in a person.  If we don't fulfill promises that we make, we may lose trust in ourselves.  They matter.  They are what we remember and sometimes they are what keep us going.

Jesus was "the promised one."  Think about it...the people had been waiting, hoping, telling the tales of how this promised one may come and when.  They had been talking about it and dreaming about that promise for a very long time.  And this promised one and promised moment was underwhelming...in Bethlehem?  In a stable?  With animals?  This isn't the royal entry we had anticipated...this isn't the fulfillment of the promise for which we had been hoping.  This isn't the story grandma told us about.

Look at John 1:

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John bridges the gaps for the people who thought they knew what the promise held.  John basically said, "Hey, I know what you've been looking for, but he's been here all along...he was with God from the beginning...he was God from the beginning, so he's legit."  Yeah, that's a little lose translation, but the people needed confirmation that what they knew was true..that the history of it all mattered.  Jesus didn't come out of nowhere...he was present all along and a part of it all.  Jesus fulfilled it all...the history, the promise...but Jesus also brought a new law...a new covenant...a new law of love.  The knowledge that this promise wasn't just a fulfillment of the past, but a promise for the future.  Jesus became a promise for all people...

"Did you wrap yourself inside the unexpected that we might know that love would go that far?"

The promise is fulfilled...live with trust in the one who came, fulfilled the promise, and continues to show us just how far love goes...

More on that next time...