Behold the Lamb of God

“Behold the Lamb of God

who came to take away the sins of the world.”

John 1:29

Last year around the middle of December I noticed that Noel Piper was posting daily advent readings.  The word advent was not unfamiliar to me. However, it was something I had never celebrated/practiced so I didn’t fully understand the advent season.  Since I was a child I had seen advent calendars, typically filled with tiny pieces of chocolate for each day of December.  So I assumed it was simply the countdown to Christmas day.  The daily readings held so much more than a piece of chocolate; so I decided to dig a little deeper about this season of advent. 

What I found was eye-opening.  The word advent means coming.  It isn't just a tradition but a reflection of the thousands of years that led to the coming of Christ, God robed in flesh as a baby. 

All the way from Genesis to Malachi the journey of the Israelites points to a desperate need for a King, a Savior, a Redeemer, a Deliverer, a Sacrifice.  The Israelites could not do it on their own. They could not uphold the law.  They could not offer enough animal blood to cover their sins.  No matter how hard they tried they could not deliver themselves from slavery.  Even of the Godliest of men that arose to lead them, they would still need more.  But not just them.  We need a savior.  We need delivering. 

I no longer want to ignore or overlook what led to Jesus’ birth, the reason for His coming. I no longer want to rush through this season of remembering. The history of God's people, the Israelites, is crucial in the magnificence of God delivering me from my sin through the word becoming flesh.

“The incarnation of the Savior of the world

could have come to pass in any number of ways. 

But God, in his infinite wisdom,

chose this couple for this night in this shelter. 

This boy, the angel had told them,

would be the heir to David’s throne. 

He would be

their wonderful counselor,

their mighty God,

their everlasting Father,

their Prince of Peace. 

The government would be upon his shoulders.”

Behold the Lamb of God by Russ Ramsey

Based upon Isaiah 9:2-7

And do you know what else I learned? There will be another, different advent, a second coming. 

Meet Roxie . . .

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

 in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139: 13-16

I have prayed many prayers for my daughter since we received the phone call about her on May 3, 2012.  I always pray for her salvation.  That the Lord will draw her to Himself and adopt her into His family so that she will know an adoption greater than her physical adoption into the Wilson family.  I also have found myself thanking God for knitting her together in the womb of her birth mother.  She is fearfully and wonderfully made!  I pray that she will praise God for that on her own someday, but for now I am praising Him on her behalf.  I am also thanking Him for writing her days before they ever came to be and that those days have led her to our family. 

I will never forget the first time I saw her big, beautiful brown eyes and long eyelashes.  My heart overflowed with love for this tiny creation, God’s creation for our family. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around her.  Several months and lots of tears later I was able to do just that.  As I walked into her room our eyes locked.  She was sitting up in a bumbo waiting for us.  Bending down to her level, our eyes never parted and I slowly picked her up trying to gauge her comfort level with me.  She still never took her eyes off of me, intensely studying this white lady that was enveloping her.  As I pulled her close, she comfortably laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled in.  This is where she fit.  Even before the creation of the world it was God’s plan for her to be my daughter and for me to be her mommy.  Tears streamed down my face as I turned her toward B and said, “She knows I’m her mama.” 

Roxie is God’s and He has entrusted her to us on this earth to raise under His truth, teaching her the gospel each day of her life.  We are thankful and honored and oh so blessed to be her parents. 

Meet Roxie . . . she has the biggest, darkest brown eyes, a crinkle in her nose when she smiles, a new discovery of her tongue, and two new teeth peeking out from her perfectly pink baby gums.  She is officially and legally our daughter!