Graciously Patient

I ran 3 miles with Max this morning. I was thrilled to be able to do so. But please take a second and picture the length of that boy's legs (he's 6'3"). Not only did he agree to squeeze his size 13 feet into Greg's size 11 running shoes (he'd forgotten his own), he also nonchalantly slowed his pace considerably for his grey-haired partner. He was graciously patient with me.

It's humbling to be in need of gracious patience. The truth is, we all are. John Calvin talks about how we are all slow, slow to grasp the ways of God. And so God accommodates to us. Calvin describes it is as God lisping for us.

"For who even of slight intelligence does not understand that, as nurses commonly do with infants, God is wont in measure to ‘lisp’ in speaking to us? Thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like as accomodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this he must descend far beneath his loftiness” (Calvin, Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 13, Section 1)

It's good we take time to meditate on God's condescension for our sake. He knows our frailty, our pain, our weaknesses, our sorrows. He remembers we are dust. And not only does he lisp so we can begin to grasp his greatness, he became one of us so that we might know his incarnate, eternal love. These verses from Once In Royal David's City say it well.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

For he is our childhood's pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

Along with you, my heart hurts for those whose sadness and losses are so sharply felt at Christmas. May they know the gentle presence of Immanuel. And may the peace our Savior brings and the hope that is ours because of his gracious patience with us, stay with them, and with us all in these days of sorrow and joy.


And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.