He Came for Failures

I grieve when I fail the Lord, when my obedience lacks its first response.

But then I remember it was for failures that Christ graced a rough-hewn waiting manger. It was for failures that He breathed His last earthly breath as He hung in disgrace on a wooden cross for the failings of the world.

It was to a failure, one who penned the precious psalms that touch our hearts in time of need. And, yet, as a man after God’s own heart, sinned and ripped apart his fellowship with the Lord, then repented and repaired it.

It was to a failure, one who had denied Christ three times, that the command of “feed My sheep” was given.

It was to a failure that Jesus gave His first greeting in the Garden of Gethsemane on that initial Easter morn.

It was to a failure who had been the foremost despiser of believers, yet became one of the greatest servants of the Gospel, the Lord blessing his ministry and his writings for all time.

I think, no, I know my greatest failure is in closing the inn-door of my heart, telling the Christ-child there is no room to live in my heart, in my circumstances, in every moment of my life.

He came…

...amid a firmament filled with a celestial choir singing praises and the cries of an infant. And in a lowly stable, a young mother lovingly swaddled her infant, the future Sacrifice of the world, and lay Him in a trough, the harbinger of a destined, wooden cross cradling the tiny body of mankind’s salvation.

He came...

...confined by the boundaries of time and limitations of a physical body.

He came...

...there, the miracle of the manger took place: an empty vessel became full - full of love, full of expectation, full of holiness, and full of humanity.

He came...

...but where does He go to be cradled today? In the manger-hearts of believers.

He came...

...for failures. For me, He came. For you, He came.

Have you offered the manger of your heart to cradle the birth of the Babe of salvation? Or are you as the innkeeper, turning away the Saviour of the world, telling Him that you have no room for Him, that your inn is full?

Do you then miss the miracle of the manger?

God still seeks His mangers…hearts willing to hold Him. For these...

He came!

May your heart know the manger miracle and be blessed by cradling the Savior-child’s salvation...Lynn