Yesterday I literally encountered a flood in my office and a fire in my home. Fortunately both of these were not devastating but certainly were impactful in my wife’s and my meditations in this season on Jesus being born of a virgin only to turn around and die in His 30’s, dying for the sins of all who simply repent of their sin and believe in Jesus for eternal life.

The toilet seal broke in the bathroom in my office and water came pouring through my office while I was in an appointment. Fortunately my appointment was with a Jesus-follower who graciously jumped to helping me. We had the mess cleaned up within about forty minutes, and still had time to finish our appointment! Then, this same friend took the time to go to the hardware store and purchase a shop vacuum he claims he needed anyway (very gracious) and some new parts for the inside of my toilet, which he gave me with a hilarious apology for the “crappy” gift! Stuart, thank you so much, brother! We know we are followers of Jesus one to another by our love, right? Definitely feeling the love of Jesus as I reflect upon your amazing display of kindness yesterday!

So, after my appointment and after getting the fans blowing on my laminate flooring to start the drying process, I headed home to get some tools to fix the toilet. While in the back yard I hear my wife yelling for my help inside. I’m thinking, “What now?!” I come running in to see a fire burning on our coffee table! My shoe came into my hand to quickly put out the blaze and my daughter looked apologetic for being far more creative with her approach to fire than her older brother ever was. We comforted her, made our firm decisions to never have candles quite that accessible for this child, and laughed really hard as we recounted having a flood and a fire all in one day as an insurance agency owner family!! Wow.

So here is where things get more sobering. My daughter was trying to get the decorative cloth out from under the candle on the coffee table to cover baby Jesus up from our nativity set. In the excitement of the fire, the red wax got on our clothing and the table, but it also landed on baby Jesus and most heavily on His heart! I pointed this out to Carrie and we were reminded of this song about how Christ was born to die for us!

Jesus endured death for us to bear the punishment we all deserve for our sinful nature and specific sins! Jesus Christ was born to die in our place! He endured the flood and the fire of God’s wrath so that we can receive God’s favor for eternity all by merit of Jesus’ sacrifice for us!

Jesus laid His own life down for us!