Satan thought he had scored the big 1.
he had got Adam & Eve. Drawn them in. And not just them, he had got every human after. Now everyone would be born twisted, hopelessly misshapen. Sin would burn its way though us. Mark us, blemish us, separate us.
Forever.
Or so he thought.
High in the heavens is prepared the Glorious Rescue.
The one counter-move to every move satan makes.
so He chose to be carried 9 months in a woman's womb. Chose to be birthed into the most vulnerable position- a child. He was weak, vulnerable, without any strength.He didn't come in kingly form with trumpets blaring, flags waving. Riding on a white horse. Every eye on him.
He could have. But he came small. Unnoticed. Slipped quietly into the world. With only a man and a woman to greet him. Chosen to protect him while he lives and breathes in small size. Chosen to gaze first into the face of Love. He steps it up a little. He reveals His presence in the angel-song to the lowly ones. The lowest of low. The outcast one, they get the first invite to see the secret of God. To gaze in wonder on the impossible.
The infant that would storm the very gates of hell.He cannot draw breath for long. Satan takes notice. To crush Him now while He's weak. Yet it's not enough to just kill him; he casually arranges the death every infant boy in town.This night is riven with red blood, rent with mourning cries. The trail of blood runs through Christ's time.
but He is born away to safety.
To obscurity in a small town.... and the world is left in ignorance.
30 years.
He changes water into wine.
Is baptized in the river Jordan and His life sealed with God's approval.
The stage is set.
He calls the weary, the hopeless; the ones whose jobs are beneath everyone else.
The outcasts again, to Him.
12 to be His closest friends, the ones He places hopes & dreams in. A light & vision.
He begins to speak of Living water....we will thirst no more.
Water that will be poured out from His very side... in time.
He calls out our very sins...but to forgive our broken hearts.
The proud condemn their own hearts with their refusal.
He tells of a Kingdom coming. Prepare for it! Don't miss it, He wants you with Him, Loved one.
He goes on.
He walks from village to village.
Binding up the brokenhearted.
Healing the lame, sick, the deaf, the blind.
Bringing the dead back to life.
He restores our souls.
All the devil had taken, defiled, ruined; He gives back, purifies, makes beautiful.
Complete and Whole.
He sets us on that Way.
He walks nearer and nearer to the Big Moment.
There are those who want Him silent.
He is Undoing faster than the devil can do.
So he incites a mob. he could not kill Him in a crowd before, but perhaps this time, he can kill Him with a crown of thorns by an angry crowd.
Satan is doing. he is calling on every trace of blackness in any heart. he is whispering, inciting:
he leads his second rebellion.
they ridicule Him, beat Him. they feel power:
He has given up His own to endure the blackness for the Loved Ones.
Darkness falls on Him. He feels the full weight of all that has tore us body and soul since That Day.
It is crawling all over Him, smothering Him. He cannot feel the Father.
It is heartbreaking, He sobs.
He releases His body, the breath leaves it. Shouts of triumph are heard, the devil has won.
Or so he thinks.
His spirit goes on.
It comes at a full charge, rattles the gates of hell, terrifying the legions. Blows back the gates and off their hinges. Nothing will stop Him from gathering up the Loved Ones.
All hell quakes, this is not what they thought it would be.
He leads them out in a triumphant march, sends them on to the Father.
The appointed hour... He becomes body and soul again. Breathes earth's air once more.
The Glorious Rescue had begun.
