Meditation
LOVE CAME DOWN AT CHRISTMAS Dr. Joseph Stowell
The word became flesh and made his dwelling among (John 1:14)
I never liked board games much, so when our children were too old for “Chutes and Ladders,” I was ecstatic. Only to find that meeting them in their world required evenings at elementary school band concerts. Why did I deny myself to spend time with my kids? Because I knew that they could not come into my world until I first met them in theirs and slowly led them to mine.
Come to think of it, that’s just what God does for us. From His world of supreme glory, the Almighty moved into our world. Compared to His world, ours is frightfully small and insignificant. But it is our world. And He knows that I can’t get to His world until He first comes to mine.
And so He did in the person of Jesus Christ, and He remains here in the Spirit. It was here that He found me and adopted me as His child. It is an astounding thought that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). And all because He loved us (John 3:16).
Who of us would have been willing to leave the pleasures and privileges of Heaven to run the risk of dwelling in a fallen, hostile world? And to add to the unlikely drama, He entered our world in “the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7-8).
Frankly, moving into the world of our children isn’t always easy or convenient. It can sometimes be painful. Have you ever tried to ride a skateboard after forty? But for God, it meant sending His Son to a death on the cross–a death that took place so that those who respond to Him in faith might have life; so that He might take us by the hand and lead us to grow out of our world and follow Him to His far better world. It’s no wonder we call Him Father.
Who of us would have been willing to leave the pleasures and privileges of Heaven to run the risk of dwelling in a fallen, hostile world? And to add to the unlikely drama, He entered our world in “the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7-8).
Frankly, moving into the world of our children isn’t always easy or convenient. It can sometimes be painful. Have you ever tried to ride a skateboard after forty? But for God, it meant sending His Son to a death on the cross–a death that took place so that those who respond to Him in faith might have life; so that He might take us by the hand and lead us to grow out of our world and follow Him to His far better world. It’s no wonder we call Him Father.