Today was the finale of our local inner city corps plant Christmas family camp. It was incredible. We had dreamed of doing an extravagant display of God's love for the weekend - and we did. It was evident by some of the comments... one little boy on returning answered his dad who asked, 'how was it?" with this: 'it was paradise!'. Wow.
But he may be on to something... what is paradise? Jesus suggested that heaven was here - in us - right now... that if we love (as He does) we can actually taste heaven on earth. And that's what we were banqueting on this weekend... heaven. Paradise came through sacrificial love in so many ways - kindness, giving, serving, singing, planning, swimming, eating.... a feast of earthly stuff laced with eternity. Good times.
This morning (at the beach) we contemplated the essentials of the Christmas story - camping out on why God would choose to come to earth as a defenseless, innocent, unarmed baby... we had the help of my own son (only 7 weeks old) as a demostration of just how helpless Jesus had made himself... WHY would he do that? He could have come with fire, an earthquake, a dragon, a pirate... anything would seem to be easier, better, more practical than a helpless little babe? Or would it?
The real question is what was he trying to say? Jesus said it best when he grew into a man... "the son of man has not come to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved.... for God so LOVED the world." You see, if he was trying to reveal his power or his strength or his majesty - he would have come another way. But he was trying instead, to display the greatest revelation of Himself to us - LOVE. And this weekend, for me, was another demonstration of the incarnation of God's love in His people. Heaven on earth. So our little friend was right on the money, it was paradise.