Advent Week 4: Love
We cannot have the gift of God without experiencing the grace of God
Merry Christmas, dear reader!
As I write this, I’m sitting at a desk looking out of the window at my in-laws’, waiting for the extended family to arrive for a Christmas. I can see the tables outside arranged and ready for the 40-odd people who will arrive soon, and cannot help but marvel at the amount of green I can see in the back yard in late December.
Texas.
I feel really fortunate to have an in-law situation that is almost entirely devoid of stress, angst, anxiety, or resentment. I’m aware that is not common, and that family gatherings can be one of the most anxiety-inducing aspects of Christmas for many. Advent provides us with a way to sit back and rest in the goodness of God, witnessing his Hope, Peace, and Joy that is found in the person of Christ.
This fourth and final week of Advent is upon us, and the traditional theme is Love. The subtitle of this week’s newsletter comes from a sermon I heard this past weekend at my in-laws’ church. “We cannot receive the gift of God until we have experienced the grace of God.”
What is “the grace of God?”
Love.
It’s pretty straightforward and simple - Paul says it best in Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
The grace of God, the Love of God, is that we had to do nothing in order to draw near to him and become whole again. We don’t have to prove ourselves. We don’t need to put our affairs in order- all He asks of us is that we open the door when he knocks.
Christmas serves as a reminder that we are safe in the Love of God, and it is that love that allows us to love him and others in return - the outpouring of our Creator’s love for us is so rich that even we, the recipients, cannot fully contain it and must act as conduits to pass it to those around us.
He is faithful.
I’ve been thinking about C.S. Lewis’ conversion story that I referenced last week. For him, God’s loving faithfulness involved asking Lewis to step off of a spiritual and intellectual cliff. Lewis found himself hoping that the God he hoped existed would catch him before going splat on the rocky shoals of doubt, but he found himself with a binary choice of either taking that step or facing the suffocating flames of despair licking at his heels. Indeed, he was caught!
A different kind of conversion story appeared in the opinion pages of the New York Times earlier this month - that of David Brooks. He describes his long, slow journey from agnosticism to faith in terms that are evocative of a pilgrimage. Though it is a different story that Lewis’, it is another testimony of the faithfulness of God’s love to us. It makes for a good Christmas Day reading!
Given that Christmas is about “Emmanuel - God with us,” we do well to remember that God’s love took the form of choosing to be with us physically. He chose to feel pain, fear, anger, and sorrow… and also the joy of friendship, a long walk, witnessing a sunrise, and all of life’s other myriad pains and pleasures. Ultimately, he sacrificed himself so that we may be made whole and united to him.
Merry Christmas - God is with us!