When my children were small and they were sad or hurt, I would crouch down to their level and pull them close. I would look them in their eyes as I comforted them and told them I loved them. Two-thousand years ago, our heavenly Father came down to our level so we could see His love. In Jesus, God wrapped His arms around us and pulled us close.
God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. – 1 John 4:9 NLT
We long to be loved. To have someone hear us, encourage us, and walk with us through pain. We see glimpses of that kind of a love in people, but human love falls far short of the love our Heavenly Father has for us. He created us in His image; He knew us before we were conceived; and He knit us together in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139) He had a plan for us before we took our first breath, and He devised a rescue plan for us before we realized we needed one.
“I have loved My people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love, I have drawn you to Myself.” – Jeremiah 31:3 NLT
God didn’t just create the universe, set it in motion, and step back to watch it unfold. At Christmas we celebrate that God’s love came down. A boundless, everlasting love. A love that looked down through eternity and determined to come to us. It is not based on who we are or what we do and we can never be separated from it. (Romans 8:35-37) It is a love fully revealed in Jesus Christ.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. – John 3:16-17 NASB
