Nothing About This is Normal

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent Night, verse 1

Let’s revisit an idea we explored way back in our first week together.  Remember the discussion of proper nouns?   Such a distinction may seem inconsequential, but they really do provide added insight.  Take a look at “Holy Infant”, above, for example.  If this were just any child, it would read “holy infant” but He’s not…so it doesn’t.  Not only that, but the term “Holy” also reiterates this notion that this baby is special or set apart.  In fact,  that’s what holy means. 

So here we have a baby of significance which is to be set apart.  This baby, due to arrive just three days from now, is depicted as being “tender and mild.”  Make no mistake though: as this child grows, His humility will lead to his exaltation, and the message He bears will not be for the faint of heart.  He truly is set apart, not only as God’s son incarnate, but in that he flips all prevailing understandings of what it means to be a child of God and how humanity  should think about eternity.

As a result, Jesus’ holiness also beckons us to be set apart as a response.  How so? Consider the following:

We are to be broken to be whole

We are to mourn to be happy

We are to be humbled to exalt

We are to be emptied to be filled

We are to be helpless to be empowered

We are to be weak to be strong

Do these examples sound like the way of the world?  Not at all.  They are His ways.  They are the ways in which we, too,  can be set apart.  He did it first.  Now, we must follow His example. We must be set apart. 

Scripture References

2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Peter 1:16

Action Step

Today, ask God to show you one way in which you can act so as to be set apart from the norms of our culture yet also lead you closer to Him.

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