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Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 1 John 4:10
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” Genesis 3:8-10 (NLT)
Our finite minds won’t allow us to come to a full understanding of what it was like in the Garden of Eden when the first man and the first woman walked with God. Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve walked with God as three friends, not as creator and creation. The only relationship they knew with Jehovah God was a face to face, arm in arm, friendship.
After the first couple ate from that dreaded tree, the relationship was severed, but the love was not. That’s important! It wasn’t the lack of God’s love that drove Adam and Eve into the trees; it was a misunderstanding of their relationship with the father.
In the years that followed, if we read the stories of the Old and New Testament carefully, we realize that from that point forward, the Heavenly Father’s purpose was not to punish mankind for their rebellion, but to gain back the relationship he so badly wanted. The very purpose of him creating mankind and the universe that surrounds us was so he could love us. God’s love was the motivation for all he did. Since then, everything he does is an effort to regain the love relationship he had with us in the beginning.
It wasn’t just physical nakedness that drove Adam and Eve (and us) away from a loving, merciful and graceful creator; it was the exposure of their own ability to live up to their part of the love relationship. Guilt and shame built a wall between the lovers. In the garden, God sought to cover that shame with the temporary clothing of an imperfect sacrifice; on the cross he destroyed the barrier once and for all through the Messiah, Jesus Christ!
The problem for us becomes the fact that we still are deceived into thinking that because we fail; because we are unable to fulfill our end of the love relationship we can have no part in the pure forgiveness of the perfect sacrifice. Nothing is further from the truth.
Our ability to love God has never been a prerequisite for living in a love relationship with the Father. Our only response is to accept his love freely based on our own repentance and confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the enemy of my soul continually bombards me with the lie that I can never love you enough and therefore I can not love you. Based on your promise I realize that my love for you has never been a prerequisite for your loving me. Today, I claim your love for me based on the perfect sacrifice you gave on the cross. Amen.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
Mom’s amaze me. Sit and listen sometime to a group of mother’s talking about their ‘babies’. They compare their pregnancies, the stages of development of the child, whose member of the family they resemble the most. I love the “She has her daddy’s [nose, eyes, ears, hair]. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy, but I never could figure that one out.
It must have been an incredible scene in the stable that night. Mary, a young, unwed mom. She was in the hometown of her husband, miles from anyone she knew; having just endured what must have been a grueling donkey ride, especially being nine months pregnant! Scared, uncertain, alone, even though she was in the presence of the man she loved.
Joseph. A young carpenter. The last thing he thought he’d be doing is marrying a pregnant woman. The last place he thought he’d be was a stable in the middle of the night, playing mid-wife to his soon-to-be bride!
Yet there they were. Confused, yet in awe. Can you imagine the journey to Bethlehem? Discussing over and over again the conversations they’d had with their respective angels? Wondering what all this would mean? What would happen if the baby were born in Bethlehem, or on the way!
Then the shepherds showed up. Mary’s first visitors. A bunch of smelly, rough, simple shepherds with an angel story of their own. I would guess they were a little apprehensive to tell their angel story until they found out that Mary and Joseph understood all too well about angel visits in the middle of the night!
But all that activity paled in comparison to the gift that night. The gift of a tiny infant that symbolized the great love the Father has for his children. God with us. God among us. God as one of us.
The angels proclaimed it above the dark hillsides of Bethlehem. Glory to God! Glory to him in the highest, who was and is and is to come. The king has come in the form of a pauper to lead us to new life in him. It was an amazing proclamation of worship and praise.
In the stable, Mary worshipped as well. One little phrase that we attribute to the manger scene, but as with any mom, it was a phrase that would follow her entire life: “Mary pondered all these things in her heart.”
Ponder: To reflect, to remember, to keep near you, to consider quietly, deeply in your mind.
Some of the gifts we’ve been given will be broken, used up or forgotten before the tinsel is down and the lights are put away for another year. But the most important gift of all, the baby in the manger is one that should be a ‘pondering place’ throughout the year.
The angels worshipped God in an awesome display of light and song. Mary worshipped in the quiet solitude of her heart. Worship involves both expression and introspection; revealing itself over time and depth as our relationship grows with the Father.
PRAYER: Creator God, I am in awe of your love for me. I am amazed that you left your throne and became one of us so we could find life in you. Amen.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Luke 2:8
When you have a really big announcement to make, you want to make it known to the largest, most influential audience. That’s one of the keys to marketing. Market to the most influential people, the largest number or people and in the best location.
But God never has followed the rules of the world. When he decided it was time to send us a Savior he broke every rule in the book.
- He made the announcement to the lowest class citizens in the then-known world. No body paid any attention to Shepherds. They spent most of their time away from the mainstream of society, watching sheep and looking at stars. Yet that’s who God chose to make the first announcement to.
- He made the announcement to a small group of people, in an obscure place, at a time of day when most people were asleep. The angels brought their message of joy to a small group of shepherds, of all people. Not only that, but often, when shepherds joined together for the night they took shifts. One or two watched while the others slept. So when the heavens exploded in light that night it startled the few who were awake and awakened those who slept!
- He made the announcement in a place where most people never went due to safety, distance and remoteness. The hills of Judea were beautiful, but rugged. Few people chose to visit them just for the joy of it.
- He made the announcement to a group of people who had little chance of being, or becoming influential in society.
Lonely.
Forgotten.
Scorned.
Fearful.
Little or no hope of advancing on the social ladder.
Those were the people God chose to give the news of the arrival of Messiah.
Why is that important? Because God is still in the business of reaching out to those who feel forgotten. From the very beginning God chose the weak to conquer the strong; the insignificant to be significant; the forgotten to be valued; the scorned to be restored.
In our world, even in the church, we often measure a person by his or her giftedness, talents, financial stature or ‘spirituality’. Our Heavenly Father does just the opposite. He looks for those who are least to make strong. He gives his greatest messages to those least likely to receive anything from him at all.
Feeling small this Christmas? Feeling like everyone else is moving forward while you are falling back? Just can’t get into the ‘Christmas Spirit?’
Maybe you lost a loved one this year and there will one less gift under the tree.
Perhaps you lost your job this year and for the first time in your entire life, you are being forced to rely on others’ help to make it financially.
Maybe you are going through, or have recently gone through divorce and feel your entire world crashing in around you.
Perhaps the doctor gave you a bad report on your check up.
I have news for you, and so does the Creator, Sustainer of the Universe. He came to give joy. Joy that pierces through everything that wants to pull you down. His message is just for you, just for this time, just because he loves you.
You can come to him-He’s waiting for you.
PRAYER: Father I thank you for revealing yourself to us in times, places and ways that go against the world’s wisdom. I pray for those who are going through tough times this season. Give them the message of your joy. Reveal to them the message of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NCV)
I like the way the KJV words this verse, “Charity [love] suffereth long”.
We don’t like to think of love and suffering in the same sentence. We’re taught when we are young that love is signified by a smile and a hug; a kind soft voice; warm chocolate cookies and milk.
Reality can set in far too early about love though. More and more of our children learn that love can end and sometimes, harshly. Mommy and Daddy used to say “I love you all the time…before the divorce.”
“My mommy says she loves me but she is never there when I call her and her boyfriend hits me all the time.”
“Friday he said he loved me, but it’s Monday and he says he doesn’t want me around anymore.”
Reality is, from a human perspective anyway, love isn’t the warm, fuzzy, eternally blissful thing we always dream of. Fairy tales end at the gates of Disney World and real live sets in harshly and quickly.
Too often we confuse love with passion rather than suffering; with comfort rather than conflict; with happiness rather than hardship. But love doesn’t have to be that way. True love, Godly love isn’t measured by fireworks and party hats.
Godly love determines, before you leave the house that the guy that cuts you off on the interstate isn’t invading your spot, you were saving it for him. Godly loves means that before you lash out at your child for forgetting an assignment AGAIN, you listen to their own pain and help them learn to make good choices. Godly love means that when the food comes to your table cold and late you notice the red eyes of the server and ask how her day is going.
Godly love isn’t easy love. Godly love gets taken advantage of; is unappreciated; suffers…long. Godly love endures constant disappointment, patiently works through rebellion and always puts the needs of the other person before your own.
People have had enough of the love the world offers. That person in the pew behind you at church, you know the one who never keeps her kids quiet, just may be at the end of her rope and needs understanding rather than judgment. That teenager with long hair and scruffy clothes may be making a statement that says ‘All I really want is to be noticed.’
How can you show Godly love today? Who will irritate you for the umpteenth time that may just need a smile rather than a rebuke? Before you act, measure your love for others according to God’s love for you. His love for you ‘suffers long’ and he asks the same from you.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the way you love me. Thank you for the patience you’ve shown when I rebel, struggle or get impatient. Empower me with your Spirit to show others the great love you have shown me. In the loving name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
