The Babe Before Bethlehem
Larry Wynn
John 1:1-18
INTRODUCTION
A.Here once lived a farmer who became jaded in his faith. Skeptical, he chose to isolate himself from others and live out his days without the hassles connected with people involvements. It took a never-to-be forgotten experience in the dead of winter to jar the man free from his self-imposed cynicism draw him back to the One from whom he had distanced himself for so many years. Author Philip Yancey relates the unforgettable story, which he first heard from Paul Harvey:
One raw winter night the man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door.. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.
Touched the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, still hid in the darkness, afraid if him.
He tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they'd flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help. He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird-one of them-just for a moment. Then I wouldn't frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He had grasped the whole principle of the Incarnation.
A man's becoming a bird is nothing compared to God's becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the un ...
Larry Wynn
John 1:1-18
INTRODUCTION
A.Here once lived a farmer who became jaded in his faith. Skeptical, he chose to isolate himself from others and live out his days without the hassles connected with people involvements. It took a never-to-be forgotten experience in the dead of winter to jar the man free from his self-imposed cynicism draw him back to the One from whom he had distanced himself for so many years. Author Philip Yancey relates the unforgettable story, which he first heard from Paul Harvey:
One raw winter night the man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door.. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.
Touched the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, still hid in the darkness, afraid if him.
He tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they'd flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help. He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird-one of them-just for a moment. Then I wouldn't frighten them so. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He had grasped the whole principle of the Incarnation.
A man's becoming a bird is nothing compared to God's becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the un ...
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