This is Love

 It’s Christmas Eve.  We have had quite a year as we settled in at a new church, raised a puppy, and continue to learn how to engage and parent a pre-teen and teen.  We are in a new season.  One that is sometimes uncomfortable as we encounter new territories in parenting and in our faith.  But we are all learning and growing as individuals and as family and encountering God and his presence in new ways as we step into all that he is doing in our church, our family, our ministry.  

I say all this as a simple update and to segue into one of the things we have been learning in our new church community.  We have been pondering and encountering the Holy presence of God and viewing our response to Him.  Do we fear the Lord and keep him in his proper place of honor and worship?  Do we make him too small in our lives?  Do we know his heart and desire for us?  So as these ideas swirl in and around me, this advent reflection poured out:

Lord, when you visited the Israelites by cloud and fire on Mt. Sinai, the earth would tremble and smoke.  Your very presence coming down upon the mountain sent fear through your people.  Few wanted to draw near…few men talked with you “face-to-face”…Abraham, Moses, David…the list is short.

Most were terrified of your presence because of your intensity and power.  It overwhelmed, and if they didn’t know you personally, it was too much and too intimidating.  The fear of being consumed was too real. 

Even those who did intimately commune with you- they could not look upon your face.  Elijah saw you only after you passed by so he could see only your back.  You put your hand over him and hid him from direct access to your presence because it would destroy him.  

Yet this closeness was not enough.  Too distant and too much between you and your creation. So close but too far- your presence so vast and intense that you could only come so close- you could know them, but they could not draw too near. 

So you made a new way, one that would allow the closeness you once had with us, where you walked and talked with us in Eden.  When you drew near and encountered us not as equals but true reflections of yourself.  

A new way began on Christmas over 2,000 years ago with a simple couple, misunderstood.  As Mary delivered you into this world, Joseph gripped in amazement at a process he had never fully understood before, you came- divine, innocent, helpless, and human. 

Wrapped up and laid in this young lady’s arms, warm and snuggly, exhausted and needy, simply perfect as any mom could attest. She leans over you and kisses your tiny nose, head, and cheek. She kisses the face of God. 

Her tears fall in your head. Her heart bursts with a love she never knew. And your heart smiles- knowing without a doubt that this plan is right.  This is the way your creation will know you.  You will be with them, you will be like them.  They will see your face and know God. 

This is your desire.  This is your heart.  This is love. 

Emmanuel- God with us.  Merry Christmas!