“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10
As a young Pastor’s wife in our first church, I was delighted to be able to teach First and Second graders in Sunday School. Many of the verses included in the curriculum were condensed to a simple phrase for the children to memorize. Many of those verses were lodged in my own heart and have caused my faith to grow ever since.
A simplified version of I John 4:10 was one of the verses used during the Christmas season and it comes to mind each December.
“God loved us… and sent His Son.”
That is why I celebrate His birth.
The Lamb of God, born in a stable, because God, the Father, loved me with an everlasting love. Even when I don’t feel worthy of His love, I know it is steadfast.
Our Heavenly Father poured that same love out on the shepherds and let them know of His birth first! The sky lit up with Angels, greater than any fireworks display man could imagine … Angels, with a birth announcement for simple shepherds. Huddled together around a campfire, they witnessed a bit of heaven as the birth of the King was announced. The shepherds were nobodies—comfortable in a stable, not dressed to receive the invitation to welcome the newborn King—but whose hearts were ready to receive Him.
I, too, came to the King dressed in filthy rags, not deserving to be in His presence. But He, like His Father, loved me and clothed me in a beautiful robe of righteousness.
He didn’t have to tell the shepherds to go and tell the world about the first Christmas Miracle and the King who had been born in Bethlehem. They couldn’t contain their joy.
May we so focus on our King that what we know about Him bubbles over into the lives of those around us.
Yes, “Joy to the World!” “God loves Y-O-U and so He sent His Son.
“Joy to the World! The Lord is come:
let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room
and heaven and nature sing.”**
By Darla Lewis
**written by G.F. Handel, Isaac Watts