This side of glory

Even angels long to look onto these things that we have seen in our God come down
The babe in a manger meaning so much more for those of us who have tasted and seen His goodness through every season of the year
Our God incarnate entering the world He created
The privilege to which we have now been granted full access
He who is our Glory was and is and is to come
Our timeless Creator of this earth we traipse and the galaxy at which we wonder, all created in purpose of pointing us to marvel at their Originator Himself.

Yet the division of sin cascaded down to every heart, cutting humanity off from this Glory… humanity then subjecting itself to the waiting for an ultimate bringing back in by the very one they distrusted and disobeyed
Restoration to their Yahweh, who they yearned for and sought after yet didn’t quite see as we now do
Year after year
Decade after decade
Century after century…

Generation upon generation all longing to catch a glimpse of this Glory now revealed to us through scarred hands and a torn veil and the bringing of heaven to earth
The Shepherd Himself sent to the shattered and separated
To those who had been sheared by the thorns of sin
The sheep severed and led astray by their desperate cravings to fill the desires in their souls, desperately in need of a Savior.

What gift is this?
That we are the ones who reside on this side of His coming
How can we taste this grace and not come back for more, over and over and over again?
Reveling in the goodness of our very near, very good, very worthy God.
A God subjecting Himself to our very aches and sufferings and death, though still having rule over it all, serving as a sharp contrast to the gods of others that are far off. That say you must come near by some means of your own.
No. Not our God of a humble stable and the ultimate sacrifice.

What glory is this that we now have in Christ?
Why, it is the very glory that has always been, yet is all the more clear to those of us on this side of the second Joseph
A Glory that reached down and took on our very cells and emotions and humanness, stretching Himself across the chasm we created and taking on our brokenness on the cross he undeservedly bore
A Glory that will one day be ever clearer still when our awaited Savior comes once more to fully restore this twisted and turned around world that has turned away from Him… He who never turned from them. From us. From me.

We recognize there is still more waiting to come
But this time it is a waiting with hearts washed pure as the snow that my children raised in an African metropolis have never seen, washed not by past temporary sacrifices of creatures created but by the eternal sacrifice of those creatures’ Creator
This time with a Helper holding our weather-beaten hands with a hope that surpasses the floods and torrents that accompany every life here on earth
This time in full understanding of the prophecies of old readying a people, us, for a Savior. The Savior who is Christ the Lord and most worthy of all of our adoration and praise.

Because how could we not adore this King of Glory?
Jesus, may our amazement of this side of the cradle and the cross bring us back in to your care
Year after year
Decade after decade
Century after century
Generations coming to your throne room from your timeless side of glory to the eternal side that will be forevermore.

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”
-1 Peter 1:10-12