Sunday, December 22, 2024
“Christmas Love”
Because God so loves the world, He comes into the world to save it, protect it, nurture it, and bless it. This is a present tense, referring to the reality that God’s work at Christmas is not simply something in the past. It is something that still occurs today and every day ahead.
One of our challenges as human beings is that our brains aren’t big enough and our hearts aren’t pure enough to love someone in such a way that there is no harm, hurt, or pain so great that we can overlook it. I believe most of us would like to say that we can love everyone, but truth be told, we all have our limits. In fact, plenty of us struggle to love ourselves, let alone, another person.
In part, we call this, “Grace”. It’s God’s offering of something just because of who God is and not because of who we are. We, too, can offer one another Grace, but still, the Grace we offer has limits. It’s much easier to stand on the sidelines and throw rocks at our enemies (or anyone we don’t like) than to run on the field or court and give them a hug.
Those of us who carry big pain are experts in this. Over the years, we have analyzed the pain from every possible angle. Then, even after we finally resolve it within ourselves, at times we revert to that place of pain as if it is a warm blanket. Regarding those deepest pains, we don’t allow them to go away. Instead, we find ways to cope with them. (Hopefully, our coping mechanism is rooted in Faith.)
Because this is our reality, it’s super-difficult for us to understand the immensity of God’s love for the world. God wants us to grow. God wants us to learn. God wants us to become better so that we are more like His family than a bunch of pawns on a chessboard.
As we prepare for Christmas these next few days, take some time to reflect upon God’s love. How is it that God can love us so much? How is it that God has so much patience for our screw-ups and mistakes? God’s love through Christmas is the reason, not because of who we are, but because of who God is.
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10, NLT)