Key Verse: "Your attitude
should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:"
Philippians 2:5
What is being humble to you? Self-pride
seems to be one of the hardest attributes to remove from our lives in one way
or another. It's so easy for us to
become proud of some self-sacrifice toward a child, friend, co-worker or
sweetest of all, an enemy. Our response
is to reward ourselves with some special pleasure, candy, down time, a distraction
of some sort. It's a rare person who humbly gives to another truly expecting
nothing in return and if nothing is what we receive, we reward ourselves. Is it any wonder then that Jesus added,
"love your neighbor as yourself," when He quoted the greatest
commandment? What we fail, too often, to
realize, is just how humbling it was for Jesus, the creator, to become one of
us, the created.
At Christmas time, for many years, the news commentator Paul Harvey
would share a story intended to illustrate just how low Jesus went to speak our
language and guide us back to Himself.
It is called "The Story of the Birds."
It's about a man who chose not to attend the Christmas Eve services with
his family because he thought the whole, "religion thing," was a
bunch of nonsense. While he sat home
alone, he began hearing thuds coming from outside. Upon investigation, he discovered that a
flock of birds had gotten off course in the snow storm that was developing and
they were flinging themselves against the sides of the house and barn in an
effort to find shelter.
At first, the man tried to shoo them toward an open barn door by waving
his arms and shouting. Then, he turned
the light on in the barn hoping that the light would show them the way. Nothing seemed to work. Some of the birds might fly toward the open
door, but then veer away again at the last moment. Certainly, the man's behavior, though well
intended, did nothing to build confidence and trust in the birds that he was
trying to save.
Finally, the man lamented, "If only I could communicate with these
birds. If only I could assure them that
I mean them good. If only I could become
one of them so that I could lead them to shelter!" At this point, Paul Harvey related, the bells
began to toll from the church holding the Christmas service that the man's
family was attending. Suddenly, the man
understood what Christ's mission had been for foolish creatures such as we are.
For the man to become a bird may not seem so bad, but what if you were
asked to become a mosquito? Yet, even in
that, both you and the mosquito are created beings. We are limited in our ability, understanding
and life-span. For God to become one of
us was even to stretch across a greater chasm than that! The infinite became contained temporarily in
a finite being. The unlimited,
omni-everything became like one of us, limited, weak and destitute. He allowed Himself to consider others better
than Himself and worth dying for. He was
willing to forfeit His own life to show how much He values ours.
He did not do it for the reward of sitting at the right hand of His
Father. He did it in obedience to His
Father to redeem us. He earned His
reward, but that isn't the reason that He came to earth.
Our attitude needs to be the same toward our neighbors, family, friends
and enemies. Think of how our response
would change toward everybody if we considered others better than ourselves as
Christ did. Maybe it would mean that we would preach at people less and pray for
them more. Maybe we would be more
willing to give of our time, money and other resources to help others rather than accumulate more
of the things that we can't take with us in the end anyway. It's worth thinking about.
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