Creativity...

...is being able to look at things upside down. sometimes the most inspiring works of art come to us in the most unexpected ways. we're talking about Christmas today @ MSC and it reoccurs to me how upside down Christmas truly is. the uncreated God of heaven, born on earth to Mary, fully human and revealed as the only begotten Son of God. woah.

there's so much there to digest...

in simple terms: Jesus is uncreated because He has always existed as God.

in more complicated terms: Jesus is begotten because though He is fully God, He is also born of the virgin Mary--therefore Jesus is fully human AND fully God.

in even more complicated terms: Jesus, the One and Only Begotten Son of God, like His Father is God. Jesus and His Father are One. They are God. as One God, They are still eternally distinct persons with One essence. Unlike His Father, Jesus became fully human and like His Father, He has always been fully God.

So, you see how upside down the story of Christmas is??? Jesus who has no beginning, allows Himself to experience the beginning of life as a baby in the belly of Mary. If God has always existed, why on earth (pun intended) would Jesus allow Himself to be born??

we LOVE creative reveals showing us what we could not otherwise see, right? wait for it, wait for it...now we see!! and what if our God--the Creator Himself--knows this? moreover what if our Creator, uses this same upside down reveal within the story of life itself. His creative love is all around us but the drudge of life wears us down, and we become cynical, skeptical and blinded by the hurt of a broken world. and now, an upside down birth leads us to a right-side-up cross and reveals to us a God who experiences our struggle with us, and rescues us from blindness by showing us that though we cannot always be instantly delivered from our pain, God's love is right in front of us in the pain. and God's loving promise, through Jesus, remains the same "whoever believes in Me will not die but have eternal life."