Emmanuel – God with us!
We sing about Emmanuel in December…. but it’s a truth we can sing and embrace each and every day! HIS PRESENCE IS HIS RESIDENCE in His children…those who have put their lives and trust in His Son Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. We can light up our minds and hearts in the season…but in reality, His light is within us all the time, in every “season of our lives.” If our life-for-Christ-wattage was shown on a Multimeter, what would be our number? 200-watt, 60 watts, 25 watts, or a night light?
Like the air we breathe, we don’t understand it or see it, but just because we can’t do either, doesn’t mean it’s not real and essential for life here on earth.
Jesus came for a purpose: to show us who God is and what He’s like. He came to be the perfect sacrifice to pay our death penalty for all our sins, so we could be forgiven and brought into a right relationship with an absolutely Holy God. The gift of Christmas is CHRIST – what a GIFT!
But before He left this world, He “gifted His followers” with the announcement that even though He was leaving, He would be asking the Father to send another Helper (just like Him). He was referring to the Spirit of Truth…the Holy Spirit: the third Person of the Trinity. And that He would be with them forever.
He would teach the disciples all things and remind them of everything Jesus had said to His followers when He was on earth. He told them to wait for the arrival of this Gift. And at just the right time, He came. This must have seemed like the longest 10 days of waiting.
As a child, do you recall a special time of “waiting” for an anticipated Christmas gift? Some children (regardless of their age) aren’t good “waiters.” They sneak around the house asking odd questions, shaking wrapped boxes, checking their weight, promising to be on better behavior and on and on.
Any gifts under the tree weren’t there because of your behavior, they were there because you were loved! That’s a reminder to us all, that He wants to reside within us…not because we’re on good behavior or do good things (because we can never measure up to perfection), but because He loves us and wants to live within us.
JESUS IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD…..…TO US
The phrase at Christmas is true: Jesus is the reason for the season, the only reason.
JESUS IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD……..IN US
We can think of other occasions where we “gift others.” We give to others because we’re loving them or reaching out to them in practical, tangible ways. Ways they can SEE & FEEL!
As we “live out that truth” in the “laboratory of our life,” we become blessings to others in the world “around us:” on the streets where we live.
Because He is RESIDENT within us, we each carry the presence of the Savior within us wherever we go and in whatever we’re doing. That’s “thrilling and astounding!” We often look at that truth without pondering it’s meaning and relevance in the shoe-leather of our living. Whether diapering a wee baby, making a dinner, cleaning toilets, at church, school or the office…it makes no difference. When you were pregnant with your child, he/she went where you went.
You know, when we consume garlic, we don’t need to announce its presence…because, it just OOZES OUT OF US. That’s what His presence in us longs to do in our lives! Talk about influence and impact! What an astonishing ambition that should be our life goal…to REPRESENT OUR LORD AND SAVIOR …influencing and affecting others in a winsome, truthful and loving way. The world can see God through the lives of His children!
JESUS IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD……THROUGH US
When we see and recognize God on the pages of our past and present, it’s His invitation to become involved in His agenda for that day.” When we demonstrate LOVE in some practical way, we are showing Jesus to the “world in front of us.” We’re making the invisible God visible to the world around us.
God isn’t interested in perfection…just faithfulness in the little things, what to us may mean mundane and seemingly insignificant in the area of life. But we’re called to allow Jesus to “live out His plans and purposes” in our life. HE KNOWS US intimately and is orchestrating the STORY OF OUR LIFE, one moment at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time, one year at a time and….one experience at a time.
We can’t touch everyone in the world, but we can touch one or two of the people in the world around us……putting on His glasses, the “lens of love,” to see people around us as He sees them.
It’s being “fully present” in our conversations with others, not glancing around to see what other person might we need to speak with or glancing at our cell phones.
The other day I saw a photo of four people sitting at a coffee shop. No one spoke as they were all addictively-connected to the screens on their phone.
Regardless of our place in life, we are an influencer! Our lives can motivate, persuade, win over, shape, and have a marvelous affect on people toward the love Christ has for them. We need to “be the gospel…. the good news… with skin on.” So, people can see and feel the love of Christ through our little, insignificant to us, oatmeal-like lives…for the glory of God.
Let’s more fully embrace the habit of “beholding others.” I love the story about Jesus and Zacchaeus (the short-statured tax collector perched in a sycamore tree). His past vocation was to rip people off. Jesus gave him the look of a lifetime. Zach was in a crowd of people, but Jesus wasn’t looking at the crowd, but was focused on one man. Jesus invited himself to Zach’s house and the rest was history. Zach was converted and became a changed man.
“Do we “behold” others, or “view them” as scenery?” “Right Here, Right Now”
Mother Teresa once said: “I don’t see crowds, I see individuals.”
I find myself wondering if the fascination of Twitter and Facebook is mistakenly conceived as simple unabashed narcissism, but is actually (at least in part) a cry of “Please see me, I am here, and I exist!” “Right Here, Right Now”
JESUS IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD…..
TO US
IN US
THROUGH US
Cups of Cold Water 