SCRIPTURE: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 1:18 NIV
The first advent of Jesus brought a lot of light into the world, but many people missed it. Light is helpful, even miraculous the way it exposes everything — from the beautiful, to the mundane, to the downright evil. Journey with author and blogger Amy Clemens as she explores the advent of one who said he was the light of the world…a light that shines in darkness…that exposes. A light that will make a second advent, with a power and glory no one will miss.
THOUGHT: If we want to really know God, befriending Jesus is the way to do that. We can read Scripture, pray, and plumb our imagination to the depths, but the most direct route is watching, listening to, and following Jesus. Many people (and I was one of them) try to find a way around that. It doesn’t seem possible; it doesn’t seem plausible; it doesn’t seem practical or follow scientific protocols. Yet John testified that it is Jesus who has made God known. The writer of Hebrews said, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Heb. 1:3).” Jesus himself said you can’t even know the Father without doing it through him — calling himself the way, the truth, and the life. “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him (John 14:6-7),” he told the disciples.
Advent, and its perfect intertwining of the miraculous and the mundane, is a great place to get to know Jesus. To see that God’s love for humans is real and tangible. To hear story after story from the Master, “the kingdom of heaven is like….” To rethink any beliefs we may hold of God as distant, uninvolved, harsh, capricious, or lacking compassion. God named himself to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Ex. 34:6),” and we get to experience that in Jesus, in a process that involves an unlikely friendship between God and humans.
“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business,” said Jesus to his disciples. “Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (Jn 15:15).”
PRAYER: O God, that you would call out to me at all is a miracle, but that you would offer friendship with yourself through Jesus is beyond miraculous. Help me see and know you better as I examine the life of your Son this Advent.
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ABOUT ME:
Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
Check out Walking When You’d Rather Fly, and learn more about the book and Amy’s other ministries. You will also find her devotional work at Words of Hope.
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