Returning to last weeks theme let’s explore a bit further what the Christmas story says to us about God and our relationship to him.
Father & Son
As we read the gospel story we can’t help noticing that its about a Father and his Son – yes in some cases that might be a marred image for some, but there are many good ones out there to, and this is just such a one, but even better!
Imagine
Now, just imagine for a moment what it would have looked like had it said that…
- the Creator had sent his co-creator to save us? The emphasis would have been in an entirely different place, it would have been on the power that created, and it’s power to simply right what was wrong. It would have been on strong arm tactics, calculated and cold, something that could be done without an ounce of love – Sadly that’s how some people see or know God, and it leaves him at a distance, and them feeling cold.
- or that he was a King sending his son and heir. Then we would have have had a picture of someone who rules over us, and very often by decree, and again there’s no warmth in it, just power and authority.
‘Family’
But no, the gospel story is told in the most loving of terms – that of a ‘family’ (the Trinity) full of love, who created not simply for creations sake, but for loves very own sake. And what a love it was, that we should dwell within the very circle of that same familial love they knew for one another from all eternity. It goes on to tell of how when we stepped outside of that circle of love to fulfil our own self-serving loves, the Father, Son and Spirit had a plan, conceived of stupendous love.
Not power but love
That plan was that the Father would send the Son, and the Son who was party to the plan, would freely come to this place called earth and take on real flesh – the stuff that we are made of, an act that would ‘change’ (if that’s the right word) the Trinity forever. God had never done this.
This was no power play – this was a love story like the world has never known. You see the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father and they love the Spirit and the Spirit loves them, and they truly love the world they had created, and such love is not about keeping ones dignity but is going to go as low as it takes to restore the relationship.
To do this the Son left all the glory he had with the Father and added to himself our humanity in order to reconcile it back to God – Christmas would not be Christmas if it were not for the Father and the Son.
“O the love, the love that God has shown…. this is love”
Such love calls forth a response….
My mind staggers at such love, my heart is set on fire, and my energies are kindled!
The Word 4 Life 