Jesus is God reaching out and embracing the world, wrapping His arms around every one of us. He is God accepting us, God loving us, God forgiving us, God reconciling us, God with us.
Jesus is God with us in the flesh - Immanuel. Jesus puts a face on God, and it's a nonthreatening face. That face has a hauntingly beautiful look of something we've hardly dared to dream of in the face of God: the look of a love without any conditions or any strings attached. A love given for free no matter who we are or what we've done. A love that calls the ugliest sinner a beautiful child. A love that is literally dying to be with us!
When we look into His eyes, we know something. No matter what our past, our struggles, or our doubts may be, we know something. At that moment, we know we're accepted.
We know we're accepted, because in His eyes we see the unconditional love called grace. We see a God who stoops to love and rescue the unlovable. We see a God who saves (for "Jesus" means "God saves") by absorbing all our sin into His death so we can be raised up to a new life of walking hand in hand with Him forever.
Jesus is our Immanuel! By His death and resurrection, He offers us a gift - Himself! He offers His own life to indwell us forever! To live for us, to love us, to hold us, to keep us, to be our most Intimate Friend. This is God with us! This is Love with us!
Jesus shows us who God is, and His other name is Grace!
Merry Christmas to all as we celebrate the gift of His life given freely to us!
