1. We see Thee, Lord of glory,

Descending from above,

And learn the wondrous story

Of God come down in love.

2. Thus cradled in a manger,

We see Thee, Jesus, there,

A houseless, homeless Stranger,

Our sorrows all to share.

3. O strange yet fit beginning

Of all that life of woe,

In which Thy grace was winning

Poor man his God to know!

4. O love, all thought surpassing!

That Thou shouldst with us be,

Nor yet in triumph passing,

But human infancy!

5. We gaze upon Thy weakness -

The manger and the cross;

We love Thee for Thy meekness

Through suff'ring, pain and loss.

6. We see the Godhead glory

Shine through that human veil,

And, willing, hear the story

Of love that's come to heal.

J. N. Darby

The awareness of sin used to be our shadow. Christians hated sin,

feared it, fled from it, grieved over it. [...] But now the shadow has

faded. Nowadays, the accusation you have sinned is often said with a

grin and a tone that signals an inside joke. At one time, this

accusation still had the power to jolt people. Catholics lined up to

confess their sins; Protestant preachers rose up to confess our sins.

And they did it regularly. Their view was that confessing our sin is

like taking out the garbage: once is not enough. As a child growing up

in the fifties among Western Michigan Calvinists, I think I heard as

many sermons about sin as I did about grace. The assumption in those

days seemed to be that you could not understand either without

understanding both. [...]

In today's group confessionals it is harder to tell. The newer

language of Zion fudges: "Let us confess our problem with human

relational adjustment dynamics, and especially our feebleness in

networking." Or, "I'd just like to share that we just need to target

holiness as a growth area." Where sin is concerned, people mumble now.

[...]

The word sin[...]now finds its home mostly on dessert menus. "Peanut

Butter Binge" and "Chocolate Decadence" are sinful; lying is not. The

measure for sin is caloric. - Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Not The Way It's Supposed To Be: A Breviary Of Sin, 1995

He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it may be a saint;

that boasteth of it is a devil. - Thomas Fuller