The Radical Gift of God

Isaiah 7:14 tells us;

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

This verse has touched my heart many times over the years and yet I am still amazed. True, this passage is a prophetic one, it is a fine passage for the Christmas season, and it is a passage that most are familiar with. However, this year I am focused and drawn to the name Immanuel. As most know this means “God with us or God united with us” and that alone is so comforting, so encouraging, but this year there is more.

This passage speaks to the incarnation of Christ and what a radical gift that is. You have to stop and think about it for a while and as I do I become more amazed and in awe of our loving God. Of the incarnation, Benjamin Warfield said; “The glory of the incarnation is that it presents to our adoring gaze, not a humanised God or a deified man, but a true God-man - one who is all that God is and at the same time all that man is - and that means this: one on whose almighty arms we can rest and to whose human sympathy we can appeal.”

I just love that and want to say; Christ, thank you for being our God-man in whose almighty arms we can rest. What a gift indeed!

There is a familiar story I once read that provides a little perspective on this;

“The land of Persia was once ruled by a wise and beloved Shah who cared greatly for his people and desired only what was best for them. One day he disguised himself as a poor man and went to visit the public baths. The water for the baths was heated by a furnace in the cellar, so the Shah made his way to the dark place to sit with the man who tended the fire. The two men shared the coarse food, and the Shah befriended him in his loneliness. Day after day the ruler went to visit the man. The worker became attached to this stranger because he "came where he was." One day the Shah revealed his true identity, and he expected the man to ask him for a gift. Instead, he looked long into his leader's face and with love and wonder in his voice said, "You left your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to eat my coarse food, and to care about what happens to me. On others you may bestow rich gifts, but to me you have given yourself!”

This Christmas can you see beyond the material gifts of the season? Can you see beyond the commercialization of the season? Can you see the radical gift of God; the gift of Himself through Christ! Amazing. Merry Christmas everyone…

Grace and Peace!