Bearing Witness

You've heard it said that Jesus is the "second Adam," the recreation of man in the image he was always intended to take. The first of a new order. Something altogether special, on whom the future of all humanity hinges. 

No wonder, then, that He was born in a barn.

Think back for a minute to the first creation, to the first Adam. Start a little bit before that, with the formless and void. 

In the beginning, everything was formless and void. Then, God spoke. And creation filled up. There was light and dark, night and day, mountains and valleys, birds and fish, creatures that roam across the earth, and finally, man. When God bent down into the dirt to form Adam from the dust and breathe into him the breath of life, it was creation - nature, animals, heavens - that were the witnesses. When God breathed out, creation gasped and breathed in. 

Something altogether new was happening. 

Fast forward a few thousand years to a little stable in Bethlehem. 

A few days prior to this moment, that stable was almost empty. There were no travelers; just the regulars passing through, probably. If that. But over the course of just a few days, the place really filled up. The animals of travelers came walking in, being led to their stalls, being fed from the earth. The spiders and mice started scurrying around the floors. The birds came in to nest in the rafters. A veritable zoo was building in that stable - donkeys, camels, sheep, livestock, birds, bees, bugs, rodents. The water was flowing to keep them all watered; the grains were being forked into feeding troughs. All of creation gathered together. 

And then....

And then, a baby. The Lord Himself took His first breath. 

And when He did, creation exhaled. 

Something altogether new was happening. 

Peace on earth. 

The cattle lowed, the donkeys brayed, the birds began to sing, the stars pointed the way, and the heavens sang holy, holy, holy. Healed and whole, for just a moment, in a single breath, with the cry of a new creation, a new Adam. A new Eden. 

Redemption is here. 

Let heaven and nature sing.