“Love came down.” I invite you to just ponder those words for a moment.
In a world where the enemy distorts truth, it is easy to think that morality is arbitrary. It is easy to pick and choose what WE see as important, necessary, true. Sometimes we need to take a step back and view it from a heavenly perspective. It is all about the relationship of a Father that wants to protect His children and spend every moment with them ... including eternity.
This Christmas, let me paint a picture. We have a God that doesn’t need us. He is PERFECT in Himself.
This love was so perfect that He spoke LIGHT into existence. He created the heavens and the earth. He placed the stars and galaxies in the sky, many of which we will never see. He provided an abundance of life. Have you ever stopped to look at how unique each individual flower, the depth of the oceans, or stripe on an animal is? He set this table, pulling out all the stops. This wasn’t for Himself. It was for us. Every bit of it for you and me.
To share His love, He created man in His own image and likeness. He BREATHED His very life into them. Can you imagine that moment? Picture it for a second.... He created us morally good with a right ordered will: to love and will the good of another. He created us in His image and likeness in utter love knowing we would have to make our own choice to love or not. Many of us can imagine this part. But He had the omnipotence. He didn’t have to give us free will. But He wanted our response to be free. So, He did what He could: He gave us the tools needed, He told us what to avoid, He created our hearts to love and choose good, He even tucked the law into our hearts. As St. Augustine said, “God wrote on the tables of the law what men did not read in their hearts.” He did everything He could. He did all this to protect us. Our heavenly Father never wanted us to know pain or sadness, loneliness or death. But He still knew what would happen. He didn’t give up on us. And in Jesus, God fights for us.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) He loves us so much that He will do anything to keep drawing us back to Him. And so, two thousand years ago, He sent a small child to be born in a small unimportant land to a young virgin mother. This child was HOPE incarnate. This child, prophesied for centuries, was God made flesh to save us from ourselves. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16).
There is an image that I keep seeing floating around. It portrays a lamb, running in the dark amongst brambles with the rain pouring all around. And in the distance, you can see the Good Shepherd as He runs as fast as He can to catch the ONE. This. THIS is the God that loves you and me. He loves us in all our faults and weaknesses. This love is unwavering. What the world would see as reckless is not so in God. He will NEVER stop reaching out for us, never stop searching for us. He knows us intimately; every hair on our head is counted. He calls us by name. This Christ child we welcome is HOPE given to us by a God that longs for us to be in relationship with Him and wants to spend eternity with us. This is “Love Came Down”.
Christina Brouillette — SFA Theologians Guild Member