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Imagine beyond the universe,
the Creator of all climbs into a luge
and pushes off for for a descent.
Twisting and turning, at breakneck speed
around black holes, past blazing suns,
He descends through solar systems
that He designed and spoke into being.
Shrinking smaller as He careens
toward His goal in the Milky Way galaxy
to a tiny insignificant earth orbiting a mini-star,

Willingly He enters time and space,
plummeting from God-head to helplessness.
Born into poverty,
His royal luge a straw-filled manger,
the train of His robe strips of cloth
swaddling a human infant.
Immense God transformed into the tiniest,
most vulnerable of all human life.

God’s luge ride into humanity is
celebrated by all the heavenly hosts.
His blazing, shooting-star descent
meticulously planned
before creation words were spoken.

God encapsulated in humanity.
The motivation: love.
The purpose: salvation.

~ ~ ~

His ascent to Jerusalem,
step after straining step up a mountain,
marks the beginning of the end
of thirty-three years of united-God-man.
The final human experience of
hands and feet nailed to a cross
which was lifted dropped into a hole.
Spiking pain amplified with the thunk.

Torn human body straining
to maintain the breath of life.
Blood, pain, agony, mocked by mere mortals:
once again, descended-God in human helplessness.
His motivation: love.
His purpose: our salvation.

~ ~ ~

God’s descent makes human ascent possible.
Our sins paid by the His blood.
The full weight of our sins dragging Him down
into the hell we deserve
so that
His resurrection can become ours.
His ascent into heaven gives us hope, now and not yet.

Birth begins our ascent,
a step-by-step journey through life
in which each day, each step
is a choice.
Do we ascend, climb the mountain
with our guide, the Holy Spirit?
Our motivation: salvation.
Our purpose: Christ in us and eternity with Him.

Or do we choose the thrills of descent,
slipping and sliding in our human luge,
declaring our puny autonomy,
imagining that we control any part of our descent
as we grasp at the straws of pleasure now.
Our motivation: self.
Our purpose: self-satisfaction.
We descend headlong into hell
for eternity, separated from our Creator God.

~ ~ ~

In love, God chose descent so that
we have a choice: Ascent or Descent.

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