Last week in less than 5 hours we got 8 inches of rain in Newcastle! 8 inches! And the fact is, it wasn’t the first drenching we’ve had this year. God has been dropping the moisture on us for a while now. There’s more coming this week. Walking across my yard is like walking on a wet sponge. Squishy. For me, all this rain is a picture of what “full” looks like. I am struck by the power of John’s description of Jesus in contrast to Moses in the first chapter of his gospel as he introduces Jesus in such powerful, soul-piercing, illuminating statements starting with, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God “ to “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him” to the climactic statement, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Like rolling thunder, John delivers Almighty God from the holy sanctum of heaven’s throne room and His filling the boundless universe, into our godless, fallen world to awaken and deliver us from our captivity to sin and corruption. Moses preceded our great introduction and awakening to the Son of God by bringing the Law with its exactness and unbending truth of God’s holiness and non-negotiable boundary between sin and righteousness, holiness and defilement. The Law was our necessary correction to show us we were incapable of forging a perfect obedience that could save us. Moses brought us the Law so that we could see with painful clarity our desperate situation before a holy God. And then the Lord of Hosts distilled into the virgin the holy seed of the Son and brought into our dark world the Incarnate Word, our Deliverer, Savior, Jesus, full of truth and grace. Full. Overflowing. Saturated. The living flood of God’s refreshing deliverance from our drought of unrighteousness. Our sin was so deadly, so devastating, it would take a deluge of grace and truth to bring us back from our sentence of death. I am so grateful He opened the heavens to rain down Jesus on us, God with us, Immanuel!
Thank you Jesus for the largeness of your being that you could hold the fullness of divine grace and truth. Thank you for being the truth we must know and embrace to find life again. Thank you for showing us the truth about God, ourselves and how to find reconciliation between the two. The truth sometimes cuts like a knife. Deep. To the heart. The cut stings, but the balm of your grace heals the wound and we are made whole; in our hearts and in our union with you our Creator. Yes, Father, thank you for the fullness of both grace and truth in Jesus. Sweet Reign of God. Oh how You have filled us to overflowing!