Today I spent a lot of time wrapping packages. I had put it off as long as I could! Some folks spend a lot of time on their gift-wrapping, but I sort of approach it in "git 'er done" mode. My approach is to more disguise than to beguile.
Speaking of beguiling, I'm sure you have probably attended what is commonly called a "white elephant exchange", one of those parties (usually Christmas) where you bring a cheap and ridiculous gift to a party. Participants choose a "mystery gift" from the pile of gifts and well...when the pretty packaging comes off, sometimes you are left with things as crazy and useless as one leg of a mannequin. (Yes, that really did happen.) . I have noticed that, often, the prettier the package the worse the gift!
The Bible tells us that was not true of God's greatest gift to us, Jesus.
No human alive now truly knows what Jesus really looked like. I saw a television special on the Shroud of Turin a while back where the scientists working with the Shroud (assuming it truly was the burial cloth of Jesus Christ) were able to recreate the appearance of the man's face which thousands of years ago lay under it. Then, there's that book/movie Heaven Is For Real, in which the little boy who died and came back to life told his parents about Jesus' appearance.
Don't you know that Jesus' physical appearance would serve only to distract us today? Regardless of his appearance, we would be prone to focus more on his visual appearance than on His message of salvation. The Bible prophetically speaks of him in Isaiah 53:2 , where we read that His physical appearance was nothing special.
"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."
The chapter goes on to describe how Jesus would be scourged and eventually crucified. So, it is unclear to me if verse 2 is describing Jesus at the time of His arrest and horrible torture, or just describing his manly physical appearance in general.Regardless, He was, and is, God in human form. And, His "packaging" is largely irrelevant. We are promised that, when we go to be with Him in heaven that "we will see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). I don't think, though, that it will be what our eyes see that will tell us, "That's Him!" But, rather, it will be our hearts that bear witness, our hearts that recognize Him in that day.
I wonder if we will get to ask Him some day what it was like to veil His majesty and to clothe Himself in flesh....It would not have mattered if God the Father had chosen an "Adonis", the most handsome package of flesh imaginable, to house His Son, the second Person of the Godhead. All flesh pales in comparison to His glory and His beauty.
Yesterday, the Hubster accompanied me to a nearby town where I got once again the tremendous privilege of singing Part 1 of Handel's The Messiah in a "sing-along". You just bring your copy of the score, pay your admission, sit in the right section and get blessed by the chamber orchestra, soloists and choruses of this masterwork. The first one we "plebes" got to sing - - - there were approximately 500 of us - - - was "And the Glory of the Lord".1 The text G.F. Handel chose is from Isaiah 40:5 (KJV) - -
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Luke, in his gospel, quotes this verse in relation to Jesus' baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended onto Jesus in the form of a dove. But, really, the glory of the Lord was revealed when Jesus put on flesh and carried out the will of His Father by being born as a baby boy. Everything Jesus did in His earthly tenure brought the Father glory, and God's glory will be further revealed when Jesus comes again.
Yep, that's glory no packaging, pretty or plain, can ever begin to contain.
Source:
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_tFJosT3k
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