our sense of propriety are easily offended...
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Reason and our sense of propriety are easily offended by the lowly state of the baby whom the wise men met. We think we are too good for his lowliness. For as Martin Luther once said: We "stink of pure self-esteem and self-conceit" (Luther's Works, Vol. 52, p. 213). Or as 19th-century English author William Hazlitt observed: "We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit." God deliberately uses lowly means like the baby Jesus, all-too-ordinary souls like us, to do his work, because "he does not wish to use such self-assured and presumptuous spirits for this work, but people who have been through the mill, have been tested and crushed... No, God must always retain the honor" (Luther's Works, Vol. 28, pp. 86-87).
It's good God offends our sense of what is "proper," even undermines our presumption. It makes us better vehicles with which to honor him.
It's good God offends our sense of what is "proper," even undermines our presumption. It makes us better vehicles with which to honor him.
