love

 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

1 John 4: 9-10 

This advent, would we remember the simple yet life-changing truth that the birth of Jesus on Christmas is the beginning of our lives fully with Him.

I love meditating on this verse through the lense of advent because it reads, “God sent His only son into the world that we might live through him.” I picture the first Christmas morning when Jesus was born and imagine what it must have been like when the whole stable was filled with a love that no one had ever experienced – the love of God “made manifest” through the arrival of Jesus.

When we think of birth, it’s easy to imagine the parents being delighted, as we know and can picture Mary and Joseph were. I don’t often consider how overjoyed God, Jesus’ Heavenly Father, was when Jesus finally came to earth and became our messiah. Through Jesus, God’s people would be reconciled to him and experience his love through the life of Jesus – even as a baby on the first Christmas. The love people had been promised would come with a messiah had arrived and they were just beginning to feel the love that surpasses all understanding.

This advent, would we remember the simple yet life-changing truth that the birth of Jesus on Christmas is the beginning of our lives fully with Him. Would we take a moment to remember that in Jesus we have complete access to his healing, his peace, his leadership, his character, his redemption and so much more. Let’s rest and rejoice in this holiday season knowing our savior is here, all because of God’s rich love for us.

But we also have a commission this season. The following verses, 1 John 4: 11-12, read, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” Our role as the beloved sons and daughters of God is to live so fully in God’s love that we are overflowing with it to those around us and actively choosing to share it with others – family, close friends, coworkers, and strangers. God gives us an abundance of His love, let us gift it.

Merry Christmas!
Bailey

additional reading:

Romans 8:35-39 |  Isaiah 54:10 | John 13:34

centering prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so dearly. I pray we’d abide in the truth of advent this holiday; that you love us with a love so deep, you gave us your son Jesus. Would we experience the overwhelming love and peace that encompassed the room the morning Jesus was born in our own lives this Christmas. And through this love that you’d given us, would you show us creative and intentional ways to share your love with those around us. Amen.