Out of the dusk, a promise (Is. 9:6)
Out of the dark, a star (Mt. 2:2)
Out of the world, a maiden (Lk. 1:38)
Out of the night afar (Is. 9:2)
Resounds the angel’s message (Lk. 2:14)
Which shepherds heard them sing (Lk. 2:8)
Out of the dawn, redemption (Eph. 1:7)
Into the world, a King! (Rev. 17:14)
source unknown—sent to me by Aunt Anne Howard, Christmas 1951
Ponder, if you can, both the majesty of that King whose hands formed the universe, and the meekness that assented to come into the world a helpless infant, utterly dependent on His mother. She would hold those tiny hands as He learned to walk. Joseph would teach them to hold a carpenter’s tools. Then, a strong man’s hands, they would be laid tenderly on the heads of little children, used to knot a cord for whipping and to turn over tables in the temple. Those hands would heal the sick and the blind. One day they would be grabbed by other human hands, slammed against a board and hammered through with iron nails which held them immobile.
[He] made himself nothing. . . He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:4
This excerpt was originally published in the November/December 1995 Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter.