Have you ever just wanted to be with someone? Have you longed just to be in their presence? Perhaps there was a guy or a girl that you wanted to get to know and longed to spend time with.
I remember when I first met my wife Amber in college. I wanted to get to know her, so I did everything I could to cross paths with her. I found out her class schedule and made sure we would intersect with one another on campus. I am sure some of you have gone to great lengths to cross paths with some one you really had your eye on. If the truth were known, some of us might have been accused of stalking when we were back in our dating days. I have a good friend of mine who pretty much admitted to me that she stalked her husband. She chuckled and said it was worth it though because she got the husband, kids, and the whole bit.
You may wonder where I am going with this. Just as we go to great lengths to get into someone else’s life, God has done the same. I know Christmas is over now, but the heart and purpose of Christmas very much lives on. Christmas was God’s way of saying, “I have come. Here I am. I want to be as up close and personal as I can possibly get. I have done everything I can to cross your path and allow you into my Presence.”
We believe that Christ’s birth was God’s way of getting up close and personal because scripture shouts the fact that Jesus was no ordinary man. He was God in human flesh. One of the names that we call Jesus by is “Immanuel†which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Christmas is over now, but God is still with us. Jesus was God’s way of saying, “I have come to be with you. I want you to be with me.” How could God say it any more clearly than by becoming a man?
Have you ever tended to judge someone without really knowing them? Sure you have. We make snap judgments about people all the time based upon their appearance or something we have heard about them. We frequently judge people without any real deep knowledge. Have you ever formed a negative opinion of someone, but later on changed your mind because you really got to know him/her? Perhaps you got inside of his heart, and it totally changed your opinion of that person.
When God sent his Son Jesus, it was a way for God to let us into his heart. Jesus was God’s self-revelation.
Can we really know what God is like? Initially, the answer to that question seems to be no. God is just too big a subject to tackle. How can a human ever wrap his mind around God? Some will tell you that we can never really know what God is like. He is just too big to tackle.
I would say they are absolutely right – unless God were to let us into his heart. If God were to reveal Himself to us, that would change everything.
Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” He was claiming that He was (and is) God. God put on a human face in the person of Jesus Christ so we could get to know Him, so we could wrap our arms around Him. God wanted us to know what He is like. And so a God who is beyond our human grasp, came within our grasp. He has done everything possible to cross your path. He has done everything He can to reveal Himself to you. He came… for you! Open up your heart. Surrender. Say yes to Him. And that’s the Word.