Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

CHRISTMAS & REDEMPTION

December 22, 2009

As precious as the picture of a baby in the manger can be, of God come in the flesh, incarnation, still it is redemption that captures my attention.

No poor creature stands in need of divine grace more than I do, and yet none abuses it more than I have done, and still do....I cannot boast when I think how dependent I am upon thee for the being and every act of grace; I never do anything else but depart from thee, and if ever I get to heaven it will be because thou willest it, and for no reason beside.

- Prayer excerpt from The Valley of Vision

The Puritans who wrote these prayers were Calvinists mostly; I am a Calvinist. I am a Calvinist by conviction, thought, and by experience. I don't bring much of value to the table, yet the Lord uses me. So when I read the larger prayer excerpted above, I know I'm reading a sister's or brother's word, another person who knew well that if God didn't do it, there would be no rescue, no redemption.

This is not a Calvinist recruitment piece, but a summons to realize what great rescue came to redeem you and me with that cuddly baby born in a barn. Without it, without "every act of grace," there would be no joy, no good future for the likes of me...and you. That makes for the Merriest of Christmases.
Joyfully,

Dale Patterson