Most of us know that Christmas goes a bit deeper than the commercialism we’ve come to know and secretly love, or the mere acknowledgment that yes, God’s son was born some time ago and this is the day we elect to celebrate it, blah, blah, blah, now let’s get ready for the Christmas party. So what is the fundamental meaning that seems to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season every year?
Christmas is simply all about love; the love that God has for you, and the love that God has for His creation.
Pure and perfect humble love.
Spurgeon once said:
If I had a tale to tell you this day, of some king, who, out of love to some fair maiden, left his kingdom and became a peasant like herself, you would stand and wonder, and would listen to the charming tale; but when I tell of God concealing his dignity to become our Savior, our hearts are scarcely touched.
Christmas is the greatest love story ever lived! Over the next couple of weeks we will look at Christmas in this light and hopefully discover and be challenged to approach the holiday with a humble and enlightened sense of not only what it is truly about, but how to participate more fully in the love story since, by virtue of your humanity, you are the object of God’s affection and love! Let's begin with the basics.
That it can be said of God that He is humble is perplexing, especially since according to the scriptures, God is perfect. How can a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and perfect be humble? Simple. God cannot be prideful. He is, after all, the highest being, El Elyon, the Creator of everything seen and unseen. He cannot think more highly of himself because there is nothing higher than Himself! Yet, in His perfection and high estate, He loves us, perfectly!
Because He is the Most High and there is nothing above Him, His love can only go one direction and that is downward to His creation, making Him the author and perfect example of humility. He forever maintains His integrity, His power, His perfection, His honor and His wealth, all the while stooping down to love and care for His creation.
Can our finite minds ever fully grasp the height of God’s love by understanding how low He condescended to embrace humanity with His love? Could we ever understand what The King of Kings gave up when He chose to wrap himself in flesh and live as one of us?
More power, wealth and honor than Spurgeon's king who fell in love with the maiden could ever imagine, Jesus Christ had everything because He is the creator of everything! He speaks a word and things come into existence! Yet, like the king whose love for the maiden was such that he chose to leave all that he had to be with her, Christ’s love compelled him to leave all his wealth and glory to be with us.
Still, the greatest part of the Christmas love story lived is not that God through Christ came to be with us in our lowly estate, but that He lowered Himself for the purpose of elevating us to His high estate.
Whatever your lowly estate may be this holiday season - be it economic poverty, sickness, brokenness of soul, discouragement, hopelessness or failure - please consider that Christmas is about the humble love of God in Christ who not only regards your lowly estate, but is able to lift you from your lowly estate into a place of hope and healing. He is the King who loves you so much that He left everything to be with you and bring hope into your life.
Christmas is the greatest love story ever lived! Over the next couple of weeks we will look at Christmas in this light and hopefully discover and be challenged to approach the holiday with a humble and enlightened sense of not only what it is truly about, but how to participate more fully in the love story since, by virtue of your humanity, you are the object of God’s affection and love! Let's begin with the basics.
The Humility of God
As I know all too well, he does nothing to demand my attention when I decide that I’d rather focus on worldly pursuits rather than on him. When I choose to think only of myself and my selfish wants instead of him, he does nothing to stop me.
It is stunning, really, the humility of a God who lets us do that.
It is stunning, really, the humility of a God who lets us do that.
That it can be said of God that He is humble is perplexing, especially since according to the scriptures, God is perfect. How can a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and perfect be humble? Simple. God cannot be prideful. He is, after all, the highest being, El Elyon, the Creator of everything seen and unseen. He cannot think more highly of himself because there is nothing higher than Himself! Yet, in His perfection and high estate, He loves us, perfectly!
Because He is the Most High and there is nothing above Him, His love can only go one direction and that is downward to His creation, making Him the author and perfect example of humility. He forever maintains His integrity, His power, His perfection, His honor and His wealth, all the while stooping down to love and care for His creation.
Can our finite minds ever fully grasp the height of God’s love by understanding how low He condescended to embrace humanity with His love? Could we ever understand what The King of Kings gave up when He chose to wrap himself in flesh and live as one of us?
More power, wealth and honor than Spurgeon's king who fell in love with the maiden could ever imagine, Jesus Christ had everything because He is the creator of everything! He speaks a word and things come into existence! Yet, like the king whose love for the maiden was such that he chose to leave all that he had to be with her, Christ’s love compelled him to leave all his wealth and glory to be with us.
Still, the greatest part of the Christmas love story lived is not that God through Christ came to be with us in our lowly estate, but that He lowered Himself for the purpose of elevating us to His high estate.
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.
~2 Corinthians 8:9.
Having all things at His disposal, God could have chosen a million other ways to demonstrate His love toward us, yet He chose to set aside not only His own glory, but to disregard human grandeur and associate with the poor and the lowly.
As Mary (the mother of Jesus incarnate) so aptly stated:
He has regarded the lowly estate of his handmaiden ~Luke 1:47
Whatever your lowly estate may be this holiday season - be it economic poverty, sickness, brokenness of soul, discouragement, hopelessness or failure - please consider that Christmas is about the humble love of God in Christ who not only regards your lowly estate, but is able to lift you from your lowly estate into a place of hope and healing. He is the King who loves you so much that He left everything to be with you and bring hope into your life.
This Christmas, may we better understand and trust in the humble and very humbling love of God through Christ Jesus.
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