Pastor Chuck’s 2014 Christmas Countdown Blog #7 – I love that the PRESENCE of Christmas is more important than the PRESENTS of Christmas! Oswald Chambers once wrote: “It is not God’s promises we need, it is [God] Himself.” Christmas is all about Presence. Let me spell that - it’s presence. Not Presents. It is about how God is with us, with us all. Indeed God’s greatest Christmas present to us is his presence - God is with us. In fact, Immanuel means God with us. Jesus wants to be with us. He wants us to be in His presence. Yet, God is so big, it's often hard to understand that presence — to grasp, let alone glory in it. If we can focus more on the presence of Jesus, we will truly discover what it means to have Christmas all year long! In certain parts of the world, people give gifts on December 6. By doing so, they have the rest of the month to focus on Jesus and the wonder of His birth, God’s perfect gift to us. The story of Jesus especially the story of Christmas is a story about how God is not far away but is close at hand and no matter how humble or far away any person or situation might seem God is there. Often we want gifts from God more than we want God Himself. We want health, wealth, knowledge, a better job, a better place to live. God may indeed want to give us these things, but we can’t have them apart from Him. As David said, “In Your presence is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). Presents may make us happy for a time; earthly gifts from God may make us happy temporarily, but fullness of joy comes only when we remain in a right relationship with God. In the Christmas story, this all this starts in a feed trough with some shepherds, and a peasant couple, and a helpless baby. God shows himself in this most unlikely of places. If God is available there God surely must be available, must be present here too. This is a big part of what we Christians celebrate at this time of year. And this idea that God is present and available to everyone was really a new idea. You see the God we Christians worship is not some far away being but a loving ever-present Dad. The God we worship was revealed in a child born in a stable and laid in a feed trough. He came to us and he became like us so that we could truly know him and understand him.
He entered our world, a world He made; yet the world did not recognize Him. Even though He cam e to His own people, they refused to listen and receive Him . But for all who did receive and trust in Him , He gave them the right to be reborn as children of God; Jesus took on flesh and becam e hum an and chose to live alongside us . . . No one has ever seen God. The only Son is the one who has shown us what God is like. (John 1:10-12, 18)
That’s what and who we celebrate today. Yes, our God is a God of mercy and compassion who is present for all who would have him. Even if you feel your life is like a broken down old stable, God still wants to be present with you, be born in you, make his home in you today. This is the present, the gift of God we celebrate today, the presence of God, for every one of us no matter how humble or great or sinful. So, what would Christmas be like if we truly celebrated God’s presence? PRAY: Lord, we want to remember You and Your coming in special ways this Christmas. Help us to focus on Your presence and not on what we hope to give or receive. May we always remember that your presence with us is one of your greatest presents to us. And I like that!