What was it like, eons ago? The place. Heaven. The location. The throne of the most high. The person: Jehovah. El- Shaddai. I AM That I Am. The Word of the Lord. The Son. Immanuel. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Messiah. Descendant of David. The second in the Trinity.  Let me clarify who I am talking about. We know Him better as Jesus.  Many call Him Jesus Christ and many just call Him Jesus.  The beginnings of this Jesus are quite impressive though.  John 1:1 tells us that, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.”  Eons ago our Jesus sat on the throne of the majesty of God, he was majesty, he was glory in actuality; in my mind’s eye I wonder how it was to behold His presence.  All of heaven must have bowed before Him, His majesty and sovereignty must have inundated the senses of the perfect beings that were the citizens of Heaven.  Isaiah himself could only utter holy, holy, holy as he beheld His glory.

            His glory became manifest in its truest form at the fall of Man.  Naturally at their creation Adam and Eve walked and talked with Him.  They were not afraid because there was nothing standing between them and their maker.  But His glory became manifest in contrast to the horrendousness of sin when Adam and Eve betrayed God and sinned.  My friend, His glory was not manifested in separation, but because of separation.  Let me explain.  Our God is a great God.  1^st John 4:16 explains His glory in vivid detail when it utters that “God is love”. 

The other day I received a call on my cell phone from one of my sisters.  It was a call that came at an odd time and because of the meeting that I was in; I could not take the call and had to let the voice mail pick it up.  Immediately in my mind I began to wonder why she called at the time that she did.  My mind began to race and ponder as to all the reasons of which she could have been calling.  I began to think that maybe it was to inform me that something may have happened to one of our parents or siblings or nephews.  Yes, for the next hour until I finally talked to her, I began to set up a plan as to what to do if something had gone wrong.  God has done the same, as soon as sin separated Him from His beloved creation; a great plan was set in motion.

            The separation that occurred because of sin was a traumatic event for the human race.  You see my friend, we are light bulbs that must have a source of power to shine, which is life.  I believe that Jesus in a parable used the illustration of the vine and the branches; the branches once cut off from the main trunk would wither away and die.  That was the trauma that the human race endured after the fall.  God and mankind were separated, like a toddler being taken away from his mother, so was mankind traumatically ripped away from the arms of God at the time of their birth.

            Biblical history tells us that God did not leave it as it was; it was not permissible to be away from his children, so a great plan was set in motion.  God had to figure out a way for Him to be with His children.  The Bible tells us that our God set up a great sanctuary system (See Exodus 25:8) so that now he could be among them, but man took that great system and corrupted it while it was here on Earth.  For ages man and his God could not commune without something in the way: a mediator.  When Moses who was a friend of God could not see God’s face but had to settle for His back, it served as a reminder that something great must be done to reverse this separation.

            Then there is Christmas. Not Santa Claus, or Rudolph the red nosed Reindeer. Not frosty the snowman, or the Grinch. Not the seasonal world war in order to get past thousands of people stampeding in a store for a product that has been discounted.  There is Christmas. Not the Christmas of a tree that is decorated with lights, fake snow, and a slew of holiday dolls.  For goodness sakes! We have even invented fake trees when there are plenty of trees out in the wild in order to celebrate Christmas!  I am not talking about that Christmas.  I am talking about Jehovah. Yahweh stepping away from the throne of majesty and glory and putting on a garment of flesh.  I am not talking about Santa, but the most sovereign God that has clothed himself in humanity.  After all the trauma, after all the separation, God in Bethlehem, said “Enough!. “The sanctuary and the lambs are not getting through to them. The rules and regulations are not bringing them to me, I am going to them”.  So God stepped out of His throne, and put on a flesh garment filled with disease, heartache, pain, suffering, doubt and selfishness in order to be with us.

            Talk about a topic that puts the national headlines such as the democrats finally taking the house and senate after 12 years from the republicans at the help wanted section of the newspaper.  Talk about a story that surpasses the stories that make national headlines such as when Britney Spears dumped her husband and went on a teenage ruckus around all the party scenes.  God came down and became a man. God is now with us, thus reversing the effects of the fall of man.  Mohammed (who is dead) could not do it. Buddha could not do it.  My friend, it’s enough to simply utter a scream of amazement!

            John 1:14 breaks the fact that God is with us into two sections.  We read, “The word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us.”  The first section is about God’s truthful word becoming flesh, now it is no longer a system that points to another reality: it is the reality.  We no longer have a symbol to guide us, we have the truth itself. He is not vague and distant, living in the philosophical realm. No. He is now truth in flesh.  God, who is the truth, has now become incarnated in the flesh as a human being.  How much more intimate can it get!  God is with us.  The word that became flesh, as we now see in the second section of this verse, has now made its dwelling among us.  God is not the pope. God is not Billy Graham. God is not some General Conference president that because of His humanity and position is far away even as He is with us.  God is not like the president of the United States that must stay at a distance.  God has made his dwelling among us.  The second part of our text of God with us is that not only is He now flesh, but He dwells with us. 

            This word “dwells” is a nuclear reaction of truth.  It is a Hiroshima explosion times 20.  God lives with us. He has now made His dwelling among men.  In ancient times when a nation defeated another nation, they would move their capital to the heart of the defeated nation.  The Middle Eastern kings would do that with most of their victories.  God has sent His son Jesus Christ, and clothed Him with humanity, so that not only can He come and be the word in the flesh, but that He may dwell with us and make His throne in our hearts.  My friend, eons ago God sat in majesty, but not so long ago He left that great majesty to come and dwell with you.  That, my sister or brother, is true Christmas.  Please do not misunderstand me. I have nothing against Christmas. Christmas is a time of meditating on the presence of Christ not only in our world, but in our individual lives.  What I love about this holiday is that the entire world remembers that God became man so that in His word and truth, He may reverse the effects of the fall and dwell with us.

            You must be asking the question, “Then how does the fact that God became flesh benefit me today?”  Well, the humanity of God in the person of Jesus Christ was a divine omnipotence that was bottled up in the works, words, and the life of Jesus.  If you turn to the gospels in the New Testament and read on the life and ministry of Jesus, every moment and every action was a manifestation of His divine nature.  We see this in the times of healing, compassion and great words of wisdom and truth.  As Jesus interacted with individuals such as Mary Magdalene, Simon the leper, the Centurion and many others, we see God’s true intention for humanity. We see God’s true love for man.   That love, my friend, is redemption manifested in the flesh. That love is healing, acceptance, companionship and above all connection to man. 

            God with us is the greatest thing that this world has ever experienced.  God with us is truly the miracle to end all miracles.  I must ask you a simple question.  Have you invited God who is with us, to be with you? Have you opened up your life to allow His life inside of you?  My prayer for you, my brother or sister, is that during this holiday season you may invite God who is already with us to take over your life and become enthroned in your heart.  If that is your desire today, we invite you to email us, or call us at the number on our website so that we may be able to guide you in that process.