God Came Near

In his book, God Came Near, Max Lucado writes the following:
"...God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb.

The Omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable. He who had been spirit became pierceable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo. And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl.

God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created.

God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.

God had come near.

He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, bust as one who first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty.

No silk. No ivory. No hype. No party. No hoopla.

Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts." pp. 25-26

Think about this fact: God became a baby! This idea is so unfathomable that Hollywood struggles to re-create the miracle. Who or what can give this story the true justice it deserves? You can.

The greatest story ever told is one of God coming in human flesh, living a perfect and sinless life, dying upon a cross for the sins of humanity, and being resurrected from the dead. And God gave this story not to the most profound writers of the modern day but to fishermen, tax collectors, and other common men. He then passed that story on to each and every one of us who have called upon the name of Jesus for salvation.

This Christmas season you need to remember that His name was called Emmanuel...meaning "God with us." Oh, how the world needs to know that God came near!