Dwelling Among Us
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Count your many blessings,
name them one by one.

Last night on my flight home I was working on plans for our November/December issue of ETC, on the incarnation. Two of the most important—and most missed—truths about the incarnation are that it actually happened, and that in happening, it made manifest the beauty of the created realm. God took on flesh, which means flesh is not such a bad thing. We miss the fleshiness of the incarnation by turning it into a doctrine, and forgetting that there was a man, in a place called Palestine, that was God.

All this, however, is an attempt theologically to help our readers understand a bit better one part of what we mean by agrarianism. A farm fresh egg, in some sense, has a greater fleshiness than the pale, store version. It is incarnated. The store version is slipping toward gnosticism, or docetism.

All this, however, is a just an excuse to celebrate new baby Saenz. It is a good thing, a right thing, for the Highlands Study Center to be blowing the “Babies are a blessing” trumpet. But it is a more agrarian thing, a more incarnated thing, a better thing for us to blow the “Elizabeth is a blessing” trumpet. In fact, that’s one of the answers to the most common objection of the heart among those who fear God’s blessings. God has never given us another mouth to feed, another expense to cover, another set of needs to be met, another set of demands on our time. But neither has He given us six blessings. Instead He’s given us a Darby, a Campbell, a Shannon, a Delaney, an Erin Claire and a Maili, who are blessings not because they are children, but because they are Darby, Campbell, Shannon, Delaney, Erin Claire and Maili. In like manner, though I haven’t had the privilege of meeting her yet, I love Elizabeth already not because she is a baby, but because she is a Saenz. She is her own blessing, but she will not doubt be as delicious and delightful as Chris, Maggie and Matthew. God is good, in part because Elizabeth has taken on flesh, and dwells among us.

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Dwelling Among Us by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

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Dwelling Among Us
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Count your many blessings,
name them one by one.