the mercy woven within us

reaching
©12-25-17 hannah mclean

oh glorious longing
image and likeness reaching for their Source

raging fires cannot burn away the ache
nor cries of pain drown out the harried whisper
joyful celebration can do nothing but join it in the air
and pleasures only point heavenward as they pass

oh glorious longing
image and likeness reaching for their Source

made to draw us
lest we never meet 

only when our souls touch
when the arms extended before us
enfold our fragility in unbending strength
will we finally rest

and then
this glorious longing will lead us
into depths of wonder, love and worship
meant to whet and satisfy
forever
when image and likeness reach their Source

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Genesis 1:26–27
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

The Angels Response

The girls and I have been going through a scripture reading plan this advent season called God With Us. We’ve looked at things like the promise of His coming and reason for His coming; this last section leading up to Christmas Day is surrounding the response to His coming. We’ve looked at Mary’s response (“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...” Luke 1:46–47) and at the shepherds’ response (“And they went with haste and found the baby...they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child...the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God...” Luke 2:8–20).

Today we looked at the angels’ response. I don’t think I have ever really sat down and considered specifically how the angels responded to God coming to earth and becoming human. What a striking meditation, and I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts.

The angels had a very unique perspective: They knew the glory of God; they had seen Him face-to-face and actively live to work out His will--They knew His holiness, His power, His beauty, His wrath, His love, His worth...His undeniable deity. And they also knew humanity’s lack of all of the above; they saw our rebellion against God, our hatred for His ways, our denial of His being. They saw the vastness of the gap between God and man.

And then they watched as the One True Living God stepped across this vast chasm and became a man to save us.

And for the first time, He was "made a little lower than the heavenly beings." (Psalm 8:5)
 
It says at the proclamation of His birth in Luke 2:13, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God...” And today as I considered this unique view they held I wondered if perhaps their understanding of the utter depth of the love and meekness and wonder of God opened up to them in an astounding way; if perhaps they had awaited with utter curiosity and awe to see what the fulfilling of this promise they had had the privilege of delivering to Mary would look like; and if perhaps before the songs of praise rang out, there was a gasp.

I bet the worship burst out of them with greater force than it does in Psalm 29:9.

I can think of no greater messengers to bring the good news to humanity.