God sending his Son into the world that first Christmas was his open invitation to the world to get to know him. The revelation of the Father in the Son is the greatest act of God’s self-disclosure in all human history. Nothing could ever surpass this. Jesus was able to say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. He was and remains forever “the express image of God and the very stamp bearing the very likeness of God’s being and nature”.
The enormity of this is mind-boggling. That God would become a man in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, is an act of almost unimaginable humility.
The enormity of this is mind-boggling. That God would become a man in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, is an act of almost unimaginable humility. That God could do it is easy to understand. God can do anything. He is not so big that he cannot become small. His love drove him to do it. He wanted us to see him that we could know him and enter into deep communion with him.
The apostolic witness is clear: That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).
The apostles saw him, heard him, and even touched him. They proclaimed their witness in truth and humility. It happened, just the way they said. And this message makes it possible for us to see him and to know him, not through his physical presence, but by the faith he gives making him just as real to us as he was to them.
We know that our faith rests ultimately on the revelation of God made known through facts of history. The incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection are not just nice ideas to lift our spirits through certain festivals of the Church. They remind us that God is real and is drawing us close to himself.
For those who have never received Christ into their life he says, “Come to me”, and for those who already know him, he says, “Come closer”. May God give you an ever deepening relationship with himself, this Christmastime and forever.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! From Colin and Amanda Dye
