{"id":47062,"date":"2005-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/billy-joel-illustrated-incarnation\/"},"modified":"2005-10-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-17T00:00:00","slug":"billy-joel-illustrated-incarnation","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/billy-joel-illustrated-incarnation\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel Illustrated the Incarnation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Lucado compares our relationship with Christ with a gift Billy Joel gave his daughter.<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>On her 12th birthday she was in New York City, and the pop musician was in Los Angeles. He phoned her that morning, apologizing for his absence, but told her to expect the delivery of a large package before the end of the day. The daughter answered the doorbell that evening to find a seven-foot-tall, brightly wrapped box. She tore it open, and out stepped her father, fresh off the plane from the West Coast. Can you imagine her surprise?<br>\n<br>\nPerhaps you can. Your gift came in the flesh too.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3497,3498,3543,3600,3918,4057,4232],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,384,394],"class_list":["post-47062","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-birth-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-birthdays","tax_ctp_tags-capital-campaign","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-expectation","tax_ctp_tags-giving","tax_ctp_tags-incarnation-of-christ"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Billy Joel Illustrated the Incarnation - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/billy-joel-illustrated-incarnation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Billy Joel Illustrated the Incarnation - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Max Lucado compares our relationship with Christ with a gift Billy Joel gave his daughter. 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