The Fourth Dwelling-Place

After this He still goes on and we still trace the same mind in Him. The fullness of time arrives and God is to be manifest in the flesh. This great mystery speaks for itself in Luke 1 and 2. But what fervor is there seen in those who wait for it! What joy there is in heaven among the angels and what joy on earth in the vessels filled by the Spirit! The fields of Bethlehem witness this; Elizabeth, Mary, Zacharias, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna also are witnesses. God assuming manhood, manifesting Himself in flesh, entering the temple of the human body, are in its generation like the glory entering the tabernacle or the temple. The Holy Spirit Himself, the angels that are in God's presence on high, and the elect that are visited and quickened by Him here below, are all made to tell of the divine joy of that moment.
It is no exile from the higher regions that we see in the glorious, eternal Son of the Father, made of a woman, and taking flesh and blood. Unspeakable riches of grace indeed it is, but Luke 1 and 2 forbid us to say that it is an exile that is then entering a foreign land, or the place of banishment. There is no finer glow of joy expressed in the whole of Scripture than in these chapters which usher in and reveal and celebrate the Incarnation. If ever the Lord God entered His temple with desire and joy, it is then. But this, as we have seen, He has always done.
This is certainly wondrous and precious beyond all thought. But is there still more? Is this same story, full of blessedness as it is, able to go further?