I love to sit in my living room when the house is decorated for Christmas. In the darkness the lights of the Christmas tree glow, the ornaments glitter and there is an atmosphere of calm solitude.
Why is Christ's birth so significant? Why is Immanuel, God with us, so life changing?
God unwraps this truth a little more for me all the time. There is more to Christ's birth and death than we can comprehend. Not only did he take on our sin and pay for it. Not only does Christ cover us through his sacrifice and make us right with God. He lived a human life. He knows our joy, He knows our pain. He knows our struggle. He knows our life.
Christ does not look at us when we mess up and do a face palm, or shake his head. He sits at the right hand of the Father and actively prays for us.
How do I even try to understand the greatness of that!?!
His prayers for us are personal, empathetic and powerful because he has lived the life we live. He gets it. Personally. Intimately. He identifies with all of it. He even knows the weight of sin because God put it on him when Christ was on the cross.
He knows.
Christ was both God and man. This is a difficult truth for many. Our finite minds cannot fully comprehend the infinite. Jesus set aside his power to live here as a man so that he could relate personally to us. It was about so much more than dying for and redeeming us. He wants to enter all of life with us. To do that, he chose to live a human life. What other god has done that?
Have you ever been lied about? Slandered? Jesus was. He can be with you, in that pain, understanding and knowing it. Have you lost someone close to you? That physical ache of loss is known to Jesus, he mourned with others over Lazarus. Have you been betrayed? Abused? Opposed? Misunderstood? Have you been frustrated with people who are slow to catch a vision? Do you struggle with family? Jesus knows all this and more.
Why does this matter so much?
Have you ever struggled and had someone who had a similar experience go through it with you? They know what to say and what not to say. They know your hurt and handle it carefully. They can walk alongside like no one else.
That is Jesus.
That is Immanuel, God with us.
How amazing is that? What lengths he has gone to. What great love and power.
He is not some God, sitting back removed from us or judging us.
We have access to Jesus, who, identifies, empathizes and walks with us in life.
He sits at the right hand of the Father actively praying for us. This is God's perfect plan. More than a mighty act of salvation but a personal relationship. A relationship based on understanding and compassion.
Immanuel.
God with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment