HEAVEN AND EARTH MEET

Ps.85:10,11 – Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Night of nights the holy night when Christ was born. The earthly meets the heavenly, from the body of a woman springs the One Who has created all bodies. He was formed in the womb as He formed multitudes in other wombs. Mercy was born as a man as righteousness gazed on the scene from heaven. Shepherds found a child in the straw among His creatures while He remained the Shepherd of all creatures from His heavenly domain. Mercy came to walk with us on the dirty roads of life as He strolled the golden streets of heaven. Here is how Augustine portrayed this passage.

“the Truth that’s in the Father’s breast has sprung from the earth to be at the same time at the bosom of His mother.
The Truth that holds the world together with rugged hands has sprung from the earth so that He may be held by His mother’s lacey fingers.
The Truth from which the Angels sip has sprung from the earth so that it may suck milk from His mother’s breasts.
The Truth that overflows the Heavens’ banks has sprung from the earth so that it may lie within the friendly confines of a manger.
Hence, Humanity, this is a wake-up call for you! God’s becoming a human being is for your advantage alone….It was for you, my dear Brothers and Sisters, that God was made man. If He hadn’t been born in our time, you’d still be sleeping the sleep of death. If He hadn’t donned the same fatal flesh that Adam had, you’d never have been liberated from the sin of the flesh. If this Mercy hadn’t happened to you, Perpetual Misery would possess you whole and entire. If He hadn’t come to die the death for you, you wouldn’t have been born again.”

Like the shepherds of Bethlehem this is the only world we know. We live from day to day being fed by His hand, forgiven by His grace, surprised by His mercies, longing for kingdom come. It has almost seemed like a fantasy, all of these amazing promises of a heavenly kingdom; it seemed like a fantasy to those who found themselves at Bethlehem gazing at the Son, it was in seeing Him for themselves that ended the thoughts of fantasy. All of our unbelief disappears in a moment as we see this mercy that springs from the earth in God’s only Son.