Hail the Incarnate Deity!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
    and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
    you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
    and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
    whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our LORD,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1,3-9

I heard plops of gentle rain this morning, and watched circles spread on the water in the ambient, pre-dawn darkness. My mind went to a beautiful song I knew as a youth about drops of rain, my heart strummed in rhythmic poignancy and delight and I recalled words and melody. Who gives this gift of the senses? Who fashioned us to retrieve memories and sing and harmonize in silence? Who has so created and elevated man to love and long like no other creatures? It is the LORD on high, Whose glory radiates above  and across the heavens, Whose name is majestic in all the earth!

And He it is Who bowed to leave His Father’s side to visit earth, to be born in the flesh and experience all He created us to know and be, that we might be born in Him to know Him in His fulness. How majestic is He!! (Philippians 2:5-8)

“He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race;
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

‘Tis mystery all! Th’Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.” ~Charles Wesley (1738)

Amazing love, how can it be? It is a mystery, this combining of the divine with man, that sweeps us up in supernatural faith to taste the heavenly pulse here on earth, and to yearn for everlasting in the here and now. Created in God’s image, we have eternity planted in our hearts though we live in the constraints of time and space. Mystery at the high transcendent One, Who has condescended to live among and die for us, leads us to marvel at the manger and to sing with the angels, Glory to the newborn King! (Genesis 1:27; Ecclesiastes 3:11)

“Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb:
veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.”  ~Charles Wesley (1739) with George Whitefield (1714-1770)

Ah, Incarnate Deity, keep me beholding, keep me adoring, keep me praising You, the worthy Savior.