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

The King’s Birthday! Messianic Prophecy Fulfilled

“And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.  And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” –Luke 2:6-7 (KJV).

Prophecies made centuries before by Isaiah and Micah were fulfilled one night in Bethlehem of Judea as a young virgin, Mary of Nazareth, gave birth to her firstborn son.  This world-shaking event occurred in Bethlehem of Judea.  We are so familiar with the story that we may allow its importance, meaning and impact to escape us.

Let’s consider the birthday of the King.  His birthplace was a stable and his first resting place was a manger—a feeding trough.  Joseph, attentive to the needs of both Mary and the baby, no doubt found some fresh hay for the manger and even for Mary to rest upon.  Fresh hay in the manger:  a fragrant bed upon which Mary lovingly laid her firstborn.  She had wrapped Him in “swaddling clothes”—strips of cloth—that she no doubt had brought on the 70+ mile journey from Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem of Judea. 

What do the circumstances of his birthplace point out to us?  They bespeak the poverty, humility and humanity of Jesus.  The poverty:  “no crib for a bed”—we sing the words from the carol “Away in a Manger.”  Of lowly parents and lowly beginnings, His birth identified Him with the lowliest of humanity.  He told his disciples later in His ministry:  “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  On the night of His birth, he was born where a lowly servant might have been born.  In Philippians 2:6-7, Paul wrote about His humility:  “Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”  And, considering the humanity of the Babe:  He could cry, He felt heat and cold, He was subject in His body to all the feelings, emotions and needs of any human.  But at the same time he was (and is) God.  Later, the writer of Hebrews stated:  “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.”  Jesus was wholly human, wholly divine, born in a manger, born the King of glory!

Jeremiah the prophet wrote:  “I will raise up…a King who will reign wisely” (Jeremiah 23:5 )  That night long ago in Bethlehem, our King was born, the one who has a right ordained by God to rule in the hearts of those whom He calls to follow Him.  Songwriter William Harold Neidlinger wrote both lyrics and music for “The Birthday of a King.”  His words express the awe and wonder of a birth like none other:

“In the little village of Bethlehem, There lay a child one day,

And the sky was bright with a holy light O’er the place where Jesus lay.

Aleluia!  O how the angels sang!  Aleluia, how it rang!

And the sky was bright with a holy light,

‘Twas the birthday of a King.

As we celebrate the King’s birthday, let us allow the depth of truth of the blessed event draw us ever closer to Him.  May we like the shepherds kneel and adore Him, and rise and go out to serve Him in true allegiance, crowning Him in our lives the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

                                                                            –Ethelene Dyer Jones  12.22.2013