Not just for Christmas
In 1978 the National Canine Defence League launched the slogan, “A dog is for life, not just Christmas”. The phrase caught the public imagination – urging people to think carefully before giving a puppy as a Christmas gift – and has remained in use for more than 40 years.Something similar could be said about Stuart Townend’s song “From the squalor of a borrowed stable.” Although the song starts with the scene of the stable in Bethlehem, and repeats the word “Immanuel” which we generally associate with Christmas, it covers the whole scope of Jesus’ history from the birth in a stable, through his death and resurrection, to his triumphant return.
The song lyrics are full of powerful poetry and capture in a few short verses the wonder of the amazing miracle of God becoming a human being and dying a cruel, humiliating death to win freedom and everlasting life for those who put their trust and hope in him. Thoughts and ideas are packed into the short lines and every word and every image plays a vital part in telling the big story. But if I had to pick out one line it would be: “He fights for breath, He fights for me.” This sums up two linked and incredible facts. Firstly, that Jesus – God himself – suffered an extremely painful and degrading form of death which was reserved for the worst criminals in the Roman Empire. Secondly, that his death was for me – that he defeated death and made everlasting life possible for me, and that he put an end to the pain, penalty and power of my sin and self-centredness.
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