Dec. 20 - Vulnerable
Contributed by
Rachel Koontz, senior psychology major from Elkhart, Ind. on Saturday December 21
Scripture
Romans 16:25-27 Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith - to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.
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Devotion
During Christmas, we like to make a big scene imagining multitudes of angels adoring some angelic child. But Jesus was a baby of questionable birth sleeping in a makeshift manger in a scruffy stable. He was vulnerable from the start.
As he wandered in the countryside 30 years later - asking questions, tenderly touching those who were scorned - Jesus was learning how to love with a full, clear, true and strong heart. He was discovering the greatest law - the law of love. This law is in the very tilt of the universe, the mercy within mercy within mercy that is the "command of the eternal God."
Instead of nursing his grievances, drawing together a political rebellion and attacking, Jesus kindled a fire of compassion within himself, even for his enemies. He lived a life of empowered vulnerability, walking into death and suffering deeply in his passion for mercy for the abandoned.
As we learn to live in this tilt towards mercy, we will be empowered to act in obedience to faith, to live in an outpouring of extravagant love and to rest in Jesus, the prophetic writings and the cradle of the universe itself when we need to be strengthened.
Christ is vulnerable, let us take him in. We are vulnerable, let Christ take us in.
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