Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for a full and productive day. I’m thankful that I finished almost everything on my list. I’m thankful that plans for Christmas with the whole family are coming together. I’m thankful that there will be one new little family member to celebrate with.

I’m thankful for Christmas poetry and Christmas music. I’m thankful for a layer of new snow to freshen things up.

I’m thankful that we have a God who accomplishes all he plans. I’m thankful that God’s Son was made like us in every way so that he could make propitiation for our sins.

Throughout this year I’m planning to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving each Thursday along with Kim at the Upward Call and others. 

Round the Sphere Again: Incarnation

Explained
Two from Justin Taylor:

• Jesus was fully divine and fully human in one person.
• Christ’s self-emptying was accomplished by self-adding.

One from Jonathan Parnell:

• Jesus was unquantifiably different than us, but he became like us.

(Desiring God Blog)

Continued
Paxon Jeancake points out the centrality of the doctrine of the ascension of Christ in the early church and asks:

With this clear biblical witness, how did we lose the doctrine of the ascension in the modern evangelical church? How did something so fundamental to our faith become obscured and neglected?

(The Gospel Coalition Blog)

Lo! Newborn Jesus

Lo! newborn Jesus
Soft and weak and small,
Wrapped in baby’s bands
By His Mother’s hands,
Lord God of all.

Lord God of Mary,
Whom His Lips caress
While He rocks to rest
On her milky breast
In helplessness.

Lord God of shepherds
Flocking through the cold,
Flocking through the dark
To the only Ark,
The only Fold.

Lord God of all things
Be they near or far,
Be they high or low;
Lord of storm and snow,
Angel and star.

Lord God of all men, –
My Lord and my God!
Thou who lovest me,
Keep me close to Thee
By staff and rod.

Lo! newborn Jesus
Loving great and small,
Love’s free Sacrifice,
Opening Arms and Eyes
To one and all.

—Christina Rossetti