Last night, I watched @pcc_thegrove with @jackiehillperry, who brought such a good word that I’m still finding myself thinking about this morning. All throughout the Old Testament, we see a God too perfect and Holy to see with our own eyes (Moses, Isaiah) or touch with our own hands(Uzzah). But then…He came. Wrapped himself in human flesh and as a completely dependent infant…he needed to be held.
To be swaddled.
To be TOUCHED.
Quite the contrast when you really ponder it, isn’t it?

This year has been ravaged with pain and disappointment for so many of us. Just this week, we lost a young friend to cancer and our own plans of finally being able to see my family after a year apart and introducing them to our not so new anymore baby…were canceled yet again. And while I sit in the grief of things lost and desires unfulfilled…He is near. Because he knows the pain we feel because he made himself like us. We don’t have a God that is far off and unfamiliar with the things we endure here in our shattered world. He entered into our reality, on a HOLY night, through the pain of childbirth, filled with the same struggle and mess for the sole purpose of living a perfect life that is impossible for us and ultimately dying the death we each deserve.
Because he loves us.
He loves you.

My hope for each of you is that you wouldn’t miss Him this Christmas. Especially this Christmas as we each navigate our own unfulfilled desires or losses. He is a close as a faithful friend and always near to the broken-hearted. Emmanuel, God WITH us.
photo via: @jessicalorrenlifestyle