I wrote the following as an encouragement to the volunteers
of the children’s and youth work at Cartsbridge…
I guess by
now all the ministries connected with the children and young people of the
church will have stopped for the Christmas break. It has been a busy session on the ‘Young Cartsbridge’
front and an opportunity to enjoy some rest will, no doubt, be much
appreciated.
As we prepare for this central weekend in the Christian calendar the words of Charles
Wesley’s hymn, ‘Hark! The herald angels
sing,’ have impacted me over recent days. The line that has stood out from
the others says, ‘veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see.’ This statement becomes more
poignant when it is viewed against the
entire revelation of Scripture. Way back in the book of Exodus we discover
an encounter between Moses and the Lord. One of Moses’ main requests of God on
that occasion was, ‘show me your glory’ (Exodus 33:18). Moses is informed that
were that to happen he would die…such is
the awesome glory of God! However, in the gospel of John we read that, ‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and
only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (1:14). Charles Wesley did not write, ‘veiled in flesh, the Godhead hidden’
but ‘veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.’
Perhaps the significance of that truth can be more fully appreciated with the
following illustration…
Back in August 1999 the country experienced
its last total eclipse of the sun.
We happened to be visiting Liz’s parents in Dalry at the time. At just after
11am on August 11th the moon passed in front of the sun causing an incredible natural phenomenon. The
air felt distinctly cooler and the birds immediately stopped singing. It felt
like we were entering a strange twilight
zone. On the days leading up to the eclipse the press warned against the danger of looking at the sun with the
naked eye and special glasses were available for the purpose. As this event
unfolded I recall standing out on the street and a gentleman from the estate
handing me an old welding mask to observe this all too rare occurrence. To this
day I have a very distinct memory of what took place and what I would otherwise not have been able to see were it not for the
shield in front of my eyes.
In a
similar way, it is through the Lord
Jesus Christ that we see the glory of God. The God who revealed himself in
all his brilliance to the ancient people of Israel comes near to us in Jesus Christ. We see his love, his humility, his wisdom, his compassion and…his
glory. In Eugene Peterson’s famous translation of John 1:14, God moved into the neighborhood in the
person of Jesus. He becomes all personal, someone we can know in the everyday
experience of life.
My
prayer would be that you will experience
much of that reality this Christmas season and that the truth of it will overflow into your service with the children
and young people of Cartsbridge in 2017.
