---Jesus / King Above All Kings ~~

----She gave birth to her first-born son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid
Him on a bed of hay, because there was no room in the inn." --[Luke 2:7/CEV]

---ONE OF the reasons the Jewish people didn't accept Jesus as a future king was that He came into world too simply for their taste. Think about it: Jesus was born to a teenager in a small town on Israel's West Bank: He wasn't attended to by a midwife; and He was birthed into a horse trough. Later, when He became a man and tried to preach in His home synagogue, the townsfolk interrupted, saying, "Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary...:?" (Mark 6:3)). He didn't have to pedigree they wanted in a Messiah.

Yet, our Lord's humble presentation should affect us deeply. Often, we are awed by the pomp and circumstance of visiting pastors, priests, and bishops-- someone carries their Bibles and wipes their brow with a hanky as they preach. But Jesus was a simple guy. The prophet Isaiah said, "He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isaiah 53:2). Jesus rode a donkey, ate with known sinners and lodged with outcasts.

I am thankful for the reminder that Jesus loves me (and you). in the middle of my mess. Just as He loves the homeless, I want to make more room in my life for the people the world considers unlovely--just as Jesus did. Jesus died for the unlovely. That describes all of us. ~~

--"The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world." --[1 John 4:14]
--ODB/PTH
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