Christmas—it’s a time for celebration. It’s a
time for family and friends. It’s a time for
worship. It’s a time for the community to draw
closer together. Christmas is so many things. But
what is it to you?
It’s easy to miss the spirit of Christmas because we
spend so much time chasing after it. Why is that?
Each year we go into the Christmas season wanting
something more. Something special! Something bigger!
I read of a man who wanted to be the first ever to
have within his Christmas yard decorations—a life
size Santa’s sleigh being pulled by the space
shuttle (also life size). And then in a grand
display for the whole neighborhood to watch, he
fired the shuttle’s engine and burnt down his
garage.
It’s very easy for us to get caught up in the
trappings of Christmas. But how much time do we
really spend considering the reasons why Jesus was
born—the reasons why God came down.
The Prophet Micah proclaimed, “Look! The Lord is
coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and
treads the high places of the earth.” (Micah 1:3)
“The Lord Came Down” the Bible says often. I wonder
what difference it would make in our lives if we
could just grasp the magnitude of this concept, that
God came down. He came down to my level. He came
down to us because we couldn’t reach up to Him. In
other words, His coming down was for our benefit.
As I prepare for Christmas this year I have been
struck by how many times in the Bible we are told
“God came down.” In the creation story God is not
just creating from some far off dark distant place,
God is right there, intimately involved in the whole
process. In the garden, God is the gardener. In the
creation of Eve, God is the surgeon.
Then God walks with the man and woman in the cool of
the evening. That idea can send the imagination
swirling.
Even when Adam and Eve are banished from the garden
there is a sense of intimacy in the way God
interacts with them. It’s overwhelming to read the
words, “And the Lord God made clothing from animal
skins for Adam and his wife.” (Gen. 3:21) How
amazing to think that even in the act of expulsion,
God lovingly stays close enough to cloth them.
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The whole Bible is filled with God constantly “coming down” in
personal encounters – with Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, and
Moses to name just a few. And of course, the ultimate coming down of
God that we need to pause and acknowledge at this season – the
coming down of Christ to dwell in our midst as one of us.
Over and over I am reminded that we do not worship a distant,
unconcerned God. We worship a God who is constantly near, a God who
is constantly searching for the lost, a God who hears our cries and
reaches out to set us free from those things that keep us in
bondage.
That is why the angel pronounced, “The virgin will be with child and
will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which
means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) Jesus is – God with Us! That’s
amazing! That’s incredible. And that’s exactly what I needed to hear
today. God is with me!
For the month of December, we will examine and ask ourselves, “What
does it mean that GOD CAME DOWN?”
[Ron Otto, Lincoln Christian Church] |
