Identified

The other day we were sharing a cup of coffee at our favorite coffee shop and the manager passed by.  Glen had heard from one of the other employees that this young gentleman and his wife had recently had a baby, and he inquired as to how mother and baby were doing.

"As well as can be expected," was his surprising response.

It turns out the baby had to be delivered quite early because of a medical condition with the mother.  As he spoke to us about his daughter's time in the neonatal intensive care, I noticed the pink, white and blue band on his wrist.

Being a Labor & Delivery nurse, I knew that this band identified him as the baby's father.  It was -- as I have joked with many a new dad -- his "ticket" into the nursery.  I knew also that he would wear that pink and blue bracelet everywhere he went.  He would not remove it because the only way to do so was to cut it off, thereby removing any chance of being able to get in to visit his daughter.  He was willing to wear a bracelet splattered with pink and blue designs because of his love for and his desire to be with, his daughter.

As I looked at the bracelet on his wrist, I thought of Another who was willing to go through any embarrassment, pain and suffering to be identified with His sons and daughters.

 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."Hebrews 2: 9, 10

Our Lord has chosen to forever identify Himself with the humanity He came to save.  He returned to heaven, not only a spirit, but a resurrected, glorified man and will forever bear that humanity to show that we are His children.

I love the way one preacher said it, "Christ is as much God as if He were not man and as much man as if He were not God."  Or more simply as another said, "There is a Man, Christ Jesus, on the throne of heaven today."

Our identification with Him has nothing to do with what we have done, just as this manager's daughter did nothing to receive his identification with her.  We are born into the family of God by faith in what His Son has done and by that alone.  He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, our salvation and the eternal and everlasting joy we will know with Him as His sons and daughters.

"Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith: 

who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, 

and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.   

For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, 

lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."  

Hebrews 12: 2, 3