The LORD is Come!

"Joy to the world, the LORD is come! Let earth receive her King."
We sing with joyous, loud voices, followed possibly by
 "Close your eyes and share the dream
That everyone on Earth believe
A Child was born the stars shown bright
And love came down at Christmas time."

Every year we sing and read about this wonderful, innocent, beautiful, heavenly child that was born in Bethlehem, and we celebrate its birth over and over and over again with great joy and anticipation. But do we give any more thought to "love came down", "the LORD is come", "let earth receive her King", or even "Jesus Christ is born"?

 Sure, we get those warm and fuzzy feelings when we sit by the fire with our loved ones opening gift after gift, beautiful Christmas music playing in the background. We may even go to a Christmas Eve service, where we most likely see the Christmas story performed, with cute little ones dressed as angels, shepherds, and Mary and Joseph. In the manger a cute little doll wrapped in cloth; or even more creative, we see a real couple dressed as Mary and Joseph holding a real baby. (My personal favorite.)
We might even add to the Bible reading a few more verses, like John 1:14 (NKJV):"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."To that we might want to tie John 1:1 (NIV): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
What does it really mean "the LORD is come"? Oh, I get so excited when I read or hear about this. It gives me goosebumps. Let me tell you why.

THE LORD IS COME!!!
That's why. :-)
Think about this for a few moments. I mean really think about it, till you can taste it on your tongue. What does it mean "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory....full of grace and truth"? God Himself is the Word. He has always been and will always be. "Who is and was and is to come." Our Heavenly Father, our Prince of Peace, our Everlasting Father, our Mighty God - our Hero of alltime, wrapped His Highness, His Holiness in human flesh and skin for us to touch, and came from the Holiest of Holies to live among us, the sinners, the lost, the scum of the earth. God Himself wrapped up all His glory into a human body, and not just any human body. A very fragile, helpless, needy human body. A body which fully depended on HUMANS to take care of it.

His Holiness, the Glory of God, in a form of a tiny baby, growing up the same way we all do, here on earth among sickness and disease and sin. Who would do such a thing? And not just that, but - Who would make that decision voluntarily; go willingly from the greatest comfort, the cleanest home, the greatest party in all history of parties, the safest place imaginable, and come down to the filth of sin, the smell of disease?
GOD, that's who. God and God alone did that. The God-head three-in-one decided to sacrifice the most precious thing of Heaven above, to come down and live like humans live, so we may live forever. The Glory of God came down from Heaven to save us all. How can we say NO to an enormous gift like that? How?

"So Heaven meets earth with a sloppy wet kiss."

Oh, how HE loves!