From A Distance

Some things - it seems - are not made for up close and personal. Some things are better enjoyed from a distance - like icicles for instance. The are hard, wet, cold... But in the matters of the heart, this cannot be said. We may try to keep a safe distance - we may try to take in the beauty without "touching" - but something is always missing. We were created to experience the depths of humanity that comes from opening our hearts to another. In our attempts to protect ourselves, we isolate and minimize - we starve to death emotionally.

It doesn't get much more up close and personal than child birth. Imagine - again if you will - a young woman and her man, seeking refuge in a barn so she can give birth to her baby. C'mon God! Couldn't you have done better than that? This is messy even on a good day! Couldn't you have come up with a plan that was a little cleaner... sanitary... sterile...?

But then, that wasn't God's intent - to be clean, sanitary, sterile... distant. God came. Up close and personal - with all the messiness that could be imagined - He came. He did not put distance between himself and humanity - He closed the gap. God came in as up close and personal of a way as was... inhumanly possible. While we were distancing ourselves - He came. While we were trying not to be personal - He came. While we were struggling in our mixed up and messy emotional prisons - He came. Not in all His glory, but in all our pathetic humanity.

Icicles are cold, hard, wet, and slippery. They are beautiful from a certain distance. But might I be missing out on a rich experience if I insist on keeping my distance? I have found that if I only observe those amazing icicles from a distance, I miss out on the richness of feeling the slick, icy, cone as it slowly melts between my fingers, and drips onto the ground. Yes it's still cold and wet - messy... But it's also amazing!

Just something to think about.