Weekend Words

 From Christmas - Quiet Moments for the Season...

When God Stepped Out

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.  For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.   

Colossians 1:15-19

We don't have to guess what God is like.  Nor do we have to respond like the little boy who looked up at the sky and asked his mother, "Is God up there?"  When she assured him that He was, the youngster replied, "Wouldn't it be nice if He would put His head out and let us see Him?"

What that boy didn't understand is that God did let us see Him.  By sending His son Jesus to earth, the heavenly Father fully revealed Himself as He is.  Jesus was God "manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16 NKJV).  He made this clear when He said to Philip, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).  Theologians refer to this truth as the incarnation.

This is the good news of Christmas: God has shown us what He is like in the person of His son.  He left heaven's glory and came down to earth to be born of a virgin.  All the attributes of the infinite God reside in the Baby that Mary cradled in a Bethlehem manger.  He was the "image of the invisible God," the One by whom "all things were created" and in whom "all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15-17).

As we pause to celebrate Jesus' birth, remember who He is.  In Him we see displayed the holiness, the grace, and the love of the eternal God.

At Christmas, God did step out of heaven.

- Paul Van Gorder