Getting Messy 

Yesterday at our Sunday morning services we continued our Christmas build up series. I was speaking on Giving Up on Perfect, but actually a better title would have been He Came to Get Messy.

It really struck me afresh and anew the messiness of the arrival of Jesus to earth. God chose very ordinary people in Mary and Joseph, it would have been very messy for them to have to try and explain why Mary was pregnant when they weren't married (2,000 years it would have been a huge scandal). It would have been pretty messy for Mary to try and explain it to her fiance Joseph.

Then the birth itself was pretty messy - in a barn full of animals and animal stuff!

It was quite a way for the Son of God to arrive...but I tell you what, I love this about God. You see life is messy...my life is messy, your life is messy. And I love it that I have a God who was prepared to get messy. God was prepared to roll up his sleeves and get down and messy with me and with you. We don't have a God who is far away, distant and unknowable.

God gave absolutely the best thing that he could - his son, but let us never forget he arrived on earth, lived on earth and died on earth in very messy circumstances!

God bless
Chris