The Infinite One who encompasses the worlds, the Lord of Majesty, becomes a baby in a woman’s womb.
The Lord of Love and Faithfulness is betrayed with a kiss of devotion.
He is bound with ropes that can not exist for a moment apart from His active will by men who can not breathe except that He allows it.
The King in whose presence the seraphs cover their faces and feet is mocked and spat upon by sinners.
The King of all kings and Lord of all lords is sentenced to death by a conquered people and a mere government official.
The Lord whose least wish angels delight to obey is made to carry His own cross to the place of execution.
The One who, even now, upholds all the worlds by a single word staggers beneath the weight of His cross, and has need of a creature to help Him bear it, lest He collapse beneath it and die on the way.
The hands that formed the worlds are nailed to a cross.
The One whose train fills the temple and whose glory fills the earth hangs exposed to public shame.
The One so holy that He can not even look upon sin is made to be the sin of the world, of the very ones who are nailing Him to a tree.
The Lord of Light and Day hangs on a cross dying in darkness at noon.
The Beloved, who has always dwelt in the bosom of the Father, cries out in anguish, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The Blessed One, Blessing Himself, is accursed and doomed with every curse.
The Accepted One, in whom God is well-pleased, is crushed beneath the weight of wrath.
The One who has kept every law and deserves every reward and honor is treated as those who have broken every law and is punished with every punishment and disgraced with every shame.
The Life, whose power and care is the only reason why anyone lives, breathes out His dying breath and expires.
The dead body of Him whose power alone keeps the worlds in order is laid in a tomb.
Weep in anguish, wail in despair, cry out in immeasurable grief, let your hearts be torn in two, find no comfort for yourselves nor any rest, lay yourselves in ashes and dust …
Rather …
Rejoice, break forth into song, sing with great fervor and joy, cry aloud for glory, clothe yourselves with beauty, rise and shine …
For the Conqueror rises from the grave.
For the serpent’s head is crushed.
For the veil of sin has been torn and sin is no more to be found.
For God fills all things from the depths to the heights.
For suffering and death have been redeemed.
For what was shame and disgrace has been filled by God and is now a glory and an honor.
For there is nothing good which is not found in God and which God has not accomplished.
And nothing in human life which can not be made the throne of the glory of God.
For the One who has been humiliated beyond all shame is now crowned with every crown.
He is the King of Glory.
He is the King of Disgrace.
He is the King in His Beauty.
He is the King who was marred beyond all human likeness.
He is the King of Joy and Gladness.
He is the King of Sorrows and Grief.
He is the King of Life.
He is the King of Death.
He is the King of Salvation.
He is the King of Condemnation.
He is the King of the Light.
He is the King of the Night.
He is the King of the Heights.
He is the King of the Depths.
He is the King of Wrath.
He is the King of Mercy.
He is the King … of all.
It is fitting that God should be all in all … if there is to be any good in suffering, humiliation, or death, God must first suffer, be humiliated, and die, for how else could there be good therein, for all good must first be found in God?
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice, all you who are in Him … Rejoice wherever you stand, for you may know Him in every valley as much as in every mountain-top. You need never mourn to suffer or to die, for your God has suffered and died first, and there is now no condemnation for you! Rejoice, that God is all in all!
Copyright 2017 Raina Nightingale
Enthralled By Love 