Heartspace and headspace
How can we know God in the craziness of this Christmas season? If you’re like me, your headspace gets overly crowded this time of year. There’s always the washing up, there’s a general election, work deadlines AND Christmas is coming! Unlike my boilerman who had wrapped all his Christmas presents by August, I am far from ready. So much to do! There’s moving the furniture to fit the Christmas tree - twice! There’s the military operation which is Christmas dinner and the critical question of to sprout or not to sprout, which divides the nation like Brexit. Our heads can get so full that we join the innkeeper say, NO ROOM! No space for what G.K.Chesterton beautifully called the “submerged sunrise of wonder”, no space to connect with the eternal.
Can we know God here? We can’t see him. As if a microbe could map the stars! As if the eye of a sinner could look upon the blazing holiness of the Almighty!
John brings us hope, “No-one has ever seen God but God, the one and only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, has made him known.”
Long before the first Christmas, God made a promise that beats the wildest in the election manifestos, “You will all know me from the greatest to the least of you.” That includes you.
So he came to visit. So quietly. God didn’t arrive like Trump with Airforce 1 and a twitter feed. Sure, there was an angelic fanfare but only heard by some grubby shepherds.
Why didn’t God blast his way onto the scene? Why doesn’t God make you know him? God wrote his name for us to read in a sunset sky, in your favourite view, in a baby’s first cry, and in each one of us made in his image, but he doesn’t force us to open our hearts to him.
That’s why we still wait to see his perfect rule; selfishness savagely erodes our climate, children starve and there are stabbings on London Bridge. No wonder Christ wept over this world. Yet still God didn’t impose his rule. God waits us for us to seek him.
That’s what the wise men did. Seeking God, they picked the ultimate investment - in eternity. That’s what this short time on earth, that goes so fast, is for.
And always God is seeking us. So Jesus came to shatter our misconceptions about God - he touched the untouchable, rebuked the proud, partied with sinners, rescued an adulterer and endlessly surprised us. That little baby in the manger grew up to carry a Cross, to take on all the shame and twistedness that separate us. He gave all for love and said, “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” God made God known.
Too many people dread Christmas Day. The average family apparently has an argument by 10:15am. Easily done! What joy that the God made known is full of mercy. He who didn’t disdain a messy stable has enough grace for all our mess - even the ugly stuff.
God made known is full of grace and truth. Here’s what our grace-deficient, severely truth-deficient culture so desperately needs.
God made known is comfort in sorrow. Sometimes it’s not being with family that makes Christmas hard, it’s being without them. I know how loudly an empty place at the table can shout. But when all else crumbles, God’s love is sure.
It is this loving God who wants us to know him. Not just about him. The one and only Son, who is close to the heart of the Father, invites us to join him there.
At great cost to God, we are offered the unending adventure of knowing him. The cost to us is this - we have to abdicate the throne of our lives. I know of nothing more challenging than handing all over to God but nothing more rewarding. Just this year I’ve seen the suicidal abandon self-destruction for life. I’ve seen the rejected discover that God sees them with love. I’ve seen the great joy that floods people’s hearts when God makes himself known to them. The same Jesus who picked flawed doubters for his team and turned them into world-changers still has the power to transform lives.
How? Because it doesn’t depend on us trying to know God but on God making God known to us by his Spirit– pouring his love into our hearts. That’s worth making room for.
