Kneel Down

There are two ways to get on a child's level and interact. If you are a parent, (and maybe even if you're not) you've probably done both regularly. The first is to lift them up and carry them. In fact, this is primary for the first year or so of life. Then, as the child grows, you begin to employ the second. You kneel down so that you can look one another in the eye as you speak. I've both seen and been that tender picture many times. I think it is so beautiful because it expresses the child's dignity as a person. And it displays the great love of the parent toward the child. So as I read in Exodus this morning, that is the image seared in my mind.

God gave Moses VERY detailed instructions for building the tabernacle. It was to be built EXACTLY according to the pattern God showed him. The tabernacle was God's dwelling among the Israelites. As you read the pattern, you get the image of a stacked structure. The bases for the courtyard are bronze and their tops are silver. Then in the tabernacle proper, the bases are silver and their tops are gold. Except at the entrance. The bases of the entrance are BRONZE! It's as if, in the building, God is kneeling down to meet with them. Then we learn in the New Testament that the greatest expression of God kneeling down to us came when Christ became a man. He lived as one of us. He died for us. And He lives!

You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them.
Exodus 26:36-37

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14