mix match

I got a new pair of green beautiful ear rings. So my whole Christmas outfit was built around those. Green dress, necklace, and ring- check. I also grabbed a fancy silver bracelet to flare it up. Except I didn't notice the bracelet wasn't solid silver. It had tiny flecks of purple. I looked down at it and thought "oh no" and almost took it off but then something stopped me short. Purple...the color of Easter.

Mark 15:17 
And they clothed His body with purple, and platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head

Mark 15:20 And when they had mocked Him, they took off the purple from Him and put on His own clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him.

Purple- The color of royalty. The color they used to mock His claim that He was truly a king, but not of this world. Oh Jesus. Sometimes in the celebration of your birth we forget that you, Your Father, and the Holy Spirit knew the end before the beginning. 

Wrapped in swaddling clothing at birth and wrapped in swaddling clothing in death. A borrowed manger and a borrowed tomb. An eternity behind him and an eternity before him.

Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That famous song that is sung throughout the Christmas season "Mary did you know?" I am not sure what all she knew, but I am certain Jesus understood the assignment. He knew he would be mocked, deserted, beaten, and finally killed. He came anyway. 

I imagine the Father looking at the Son. The Son staring into the darkness. "I'll go." No hesitation. No shaking voice. No looking back. His people needed Him to be the bridge and if that meant he went from a God Head to a baby who needed his diaper changed, so be it. 

With Adam, the gauntlet was thrown down. With Jesus birth, challenge was accepted and victory was coming. BUT not before he had to make it from the beginning to the end. Today we celebrate the beginning of the greatest redemption story of all time. . "The weary world rejoicing." Finally, the Messiah has come.  But Jesus knows what is coming for Him. Who is coming for Him. What has Him in His sights. He came down anyway.

My bracelet with my tiny purple gems reminded me that in the celebration of Christmas may we not forget why He was coming. How will it finish? With the end of death, sin, pain, sickness, and every other plague this world counters with. BUT FIRST. He has to come. He has to decide to come even when he knows what awaits.  He did it. For me and you and NEVER looked back.

He didn't have to come. But He did. Thank-you my sweet, precious Savior for coming even when I don't deserve it or could ever pay you back. We needed you. So you came. Thank-you.