Today's encouragement comes from John 1:14a, where we read these amaz-ing words:
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . "This word "Flesh" is very strong. It connotes a sense of the Son of God fully entering into our fallenness and its resulting misery, etc.—yet, of course, with no sin of His own (either original or actual). The historical fact of the incarna-tion of the God/Man has *perpetual* power. Our flesh-bound Messiah is now in heaven, but He is also still present and active in us, His church, today, through the presence and ennobling grace of the blessed Holy Spirit.
Therefore, in this joyous Advent season, let all God's redeemed children re-member that the One who "became flesh" for us is *still* with us, and one of us. He has made His church "bone of His bone," etc., (cf. Eph. 5:30).
[Puritan quote of the day: "The happiness of man consists in communion with God and conformity to Him.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "Glorious Freedom"]
