December 28

God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From Ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.

Psalm 45:7

Today’s psalm paints a royal portrait – a king enjoying palace life. I wonder if this is a glimpse of your heavenly life, before you came to earth to be born. If so, it’s a stark contrast to the stable. Fragrant robes replaced with swaddling clothes. Suddenly your “companions” are oxen and donkeys. This is what you gave up in order to save us. I love the fact that one of these royal scents is myrrh. The magi knew you were a king, and they offered a whiff of majesty. Lord, Jesus, thank you for becoming one of us. In your precious name, I pray. Amen

Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness