The mystery of the belly button

I received an awesome devotional for my birthday, "Grace for the Moment" by Max Lucado.(Thanks Mom and Dad!) It is a morning and evening edition... and while it is only the 7th day of the month, I have already been blessed. Today, I just want to share a couple of things that blew me away....

God loves to decorate. God has to decorate. Let him live long enough in a heart, and that heart will begin to change.

God wants to be your dwelling place. He has no interest in being a weekend getaway or a Sunday bungalow or a summer cottage. He wants you under his roof now and always.

You are guaranteed that your sins will be filtered through, hidden in, and screened out by the sacrifice of Jesus. When God looks at you, he doesn't see you, he sees the ONE who surrounds you! That means that failure is not a concern for you. Your victory is secure.

And one phrase that just jumped off the page at me... and you might find it odd that it has stuck with me, but it has brought home the fact that Christ lived on this earth as a MAN, who walked IN the world... the same world that I walk in. This particular devotion called Christ the maker of the world with a bellybutton! Okay, you might be asking why this is so important to me... and I'll be happy to tell you.

When I had my girls, I was always so amazed by the fact that for the 9 months that I carried them, they received all they needed to live through me, via their umbilical chords. And while, at their birth, they no longer needed to be directly linked to me to survive, that cute little belly button would always remain with them as a reminder of their attachment to me. A reminder that they were connected to me.

As I read that particular statement it hit me that yes... Christ had a bellybutton... and that it represented not just his connection to Mary, but his connection to me, his connection to you. He wasn't just GOD here on earth, he was MAN connected to the world. He felt pain, he felt joy, he shed tears, he belted out laughter, he felt love, and he felt rejection. Could he have felt those things with so much clarity without that connection? I don't know... but I do believe that his desire to live amongst man speaks volumes about his desire to be in relationship with us. And as Mary bathed her little baby boy, I wonder if she looked at the little belly button and thought, "Wow, there it is... evidence of my connection to this child, who lived within me, and who will one day save the world."