Labor of Love

This break has been so wonderful and I haven't even officially been on break for a whole week yet!! It feels like I have though, mostly because I was in Chattanooga this time last week, came back to Athens for finals, home to Marietta for a night...woke up on Thursday to drive to Chattanooga, where I got out of my car into Forrest's truck to ride up to Nashville for the Andrew Peterson concert (Ah-may-zing. Absolutely amazing), came back to Chattanooga waaaay past my bedtime (It was 2:30 because I got into bed, 3 before I feel asleep). Then, I woke up on Friday to come back to Marietta to babysit my precious niece for the afternoon (gasp for air from exhaustion!)and then woke up this morning to work for Fossil for 8 hours (ugh)...which is what I'll be doing for the next 3 days-standing behind a watch counter, bored to tears, but getting paid :) But after I get off of work each night, I have time with my Mimi (87 year old grandmother) that's in town visiting and Charlotte is in town until Tuesday too while Katie and Lee are in Disney World with Lee's band. Whew, what a first week of break!

But the real point of this blog, a huge reality that God has been teaching me these past couple of weeks: Jesus was a human being. Okay, so I know that this is something that we hear Sundays in church is that Jesus was fully God and fully human and doesn't sound like too huge of a revelation. But what my mind has starting to wrap itself around is that being human means that, much like you and I, Jesus got tired, even at times exhausted, and needed to sleep. He thirsted, and needed to drink water. He had to bathe. Jesus experienced emotions. He was tempted, but the most incredible part is that he didn't give in. A song on Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" album is Labor of Love (one of my all time favorite songs). The talks about how "It was not a silent night", the night that Mary gave birth to her son, Jesus. The song goes on to say:

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Listening to this song, I'm reminded that Mary was in pain when she gave birth to Jesus and that just because Jesus was fully God, the other part to remember is that he was fully human. Being in labor (from what I've heard at least) is so painful and exhausting and Mary's labor was no exception. When I think about Jesus in the flesh, I almost picture this superhuman life--never tiring, never needing or wanting anything except for performing miracles. God has been showing me through so many different ways that Jesus had physical, human needs and most importantly--he died in a method that many other humans, usually criminals, died....but even bigger than that, the biggest thing to see in all of history, he died on that cross in pain for our sins. Jesus died a painful death that he in no way deserved, but did on our behalf to reconcile our eternal relationship with God. That was a labor of love in the purest form.