In Expectation of a Visit from God

“What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?”

-Psalm 8:4 (NKJV)

Christmas is coming, and no doubt many of us are expecting company. It has long been a practice (especially among Southern families) to welcome home at Christmastime those who have moved away. And if a Grandfather or Grandmother lives near or with one of her family members who has stayed “near the old homeplace,” Christmas is certain to be a time when those away will return home to visit parents and also visit the relatives who live in the home community. Such was the visitation at Christmas and other times from those relatives living away. 

 

Early in the creation period, God walked and talked with Adam. But after Eve was tempted by Satan, she also invited Adam to partake of the fruit of the forbidden tree,. They heard God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and tried to hide themselves from God, feeling guilty to be in His holy presence. That visit from God was not welcomed by the couple because they felt guilty before God for the sin they had committed. It was their choice to separate themselves from the presence of God and from communication with Him. God’s visits were not welcomed by them under the circumstances.

Man then became in great need of visitation from Holy God. Many were the efforts from Adam to Christ to restore the lost fellowship, but any measures taken by the leaders of God to bring the people back into communion with God were short-lived. People sinned again and again and knew the biting separation from a holy and righteous God. Jeremiah wrote: “ ‘Am I a God near at hand,’ says the Lord, ‘And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?’ says the Lord; Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the Lord (Jeremiah 23:23-24).

In the fullness of time the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, came to earth. To paraphrase Psalm 8:4, the Father was sending His Son because He was ‘mindful of man” and wanted ‘to visit him.” John records God’s visitation with mankind in this way: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NKJV). Christmas if the time when we celebrate the visitation of God to mankind. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us!” Christmas is Immanuel, “God with us.” God was mindful of man, and came to visit us. We know the marvelous story, told by the angels, repeated by disciples from that first Advent to the present and even into the future. Someone has already come, and His name is Jesus—because God was ‘mindful of man’ and wanted ‘to visit him.’ Praise be to God!

-Ethelene Dyer Jones 12.13.2015