The Fixer

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:18

What a package of explosive potential lay in the manger.  He was the little Lamb and the little Shepherd, each one offering life altering implications for those who needed a Lamb slain for their sin and for those who were lost and needed a shepherd to show them the way home. 

Oh, but Baby Jesus could do far more than that.  He was also the little Reconciler who had the power to bring together two enemies and make them, not only compatible but, intimate.  Reconciliation rarely has such stunning outcomes.  It is one thing to bring together two parties who are at odds over an issue.  It is quite another thing to cause two people, far apart in every way, to eagerly join hands and become one in their thinking and feeling. 

Oh, how deep was the fracture in the Garden of Eden.  God had made man perfectly.  It was he who wanted more, who bought the Serpent’s lie, and then opened his mind to evil.  It was a world he was not created to understand nor be compatible with.  Yet, evil corrupted him and he began to choose everything that God wouldn’t choose and to think all things God wouldn’t think. Alienation ensued and the two were separated by a great gulf.  God’s answer was to send a Reconciler who could also be the Lamb to forgive sin and restore the sinner to what he once was ~ holy before God.   

The baby didn’t automatically reconcile enemies at His birth.  God’s timetable moves slowly.  It took thousands of years for God to send this Lamb.  It would take thirty-three years more for the Lamb to die for the sins that separated mankind from His Father.  But how necessary the three decades were.  The only way for people to trust the Lamb would be to watch Him live, hear Him speak, and experience God’s love, grace, and mercy through direct interaction.  His Light would woo sinners and warm up their icy relationship.  Despite the beauty of this picture, not all would come to hate their sin and mourn their estrangement however.

Ah, but for the ones who did, life would be different.  There would be complete compatibility, impeccable restoration, and perfect reconciliation with the Father who waited, once again, to walk with His children in the garden of paradise.

If there is tension in our relationship, it can be fixed now.  Thank you, Jesus. Amen