Moving in
What is Christmas about? Far, far more than I can summarise. That quiet divine arrival was more powerful than the big bang, initiating another creation, a new humanity, an expanding universe of love that our little minds cannot begin to comprehend.
John picks out one strand of truth - enough for a lifetime of meditation -
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (NIV)
The Word became human and made his home among us. (NLT)
The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood. (The Message)
Last year, I spent hours on Rightmove searching for our new home and am deeply grateful to be settled and to have put up my Christmas tree lights today. Every landmark makes it feel more home. Home matters.
Which makes it even more extraordinary that God chose to make his home with us. Not just for 9 months, cramped into a teenage womb, not just for 33 years in which wood splintered the carpenter’s hands, flesh tore and the weight of sin crushed Christ. God became one of us to make a home with us and in us forever.
I cherish the ritual of putting up my nativity set, (hiding the king behind the hay-bale because our dog Holly chewed his leg off years ago) and carefully placing the tiny camel as far as possible from the massive one, (because it’s all about perspective). But I don’t want to get stuck at the stable. Because a baby cannot help us. The story didn’t end at the stable.
It’s good to linger at the stable in sheer wonder that God became one of us just as it is good to linger at the Cross in sheer wonder that God became sin for us. But we mustn’t get stuck either at the Stable or at the Cross. The ancient path of adoration leads from the Stable to the Cross, from the Cross to the Resurrection, from the Resurrection to the Ascension straight to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit - which is how God makes his home in us today in anticipation of being home with us forever.
What is our part? Do we have to provide a palace for the King? That dingy, dirty stable tells us God us that God is willing to come to us where we are. But always he waits for us to welcome him in as Lord and Saviour.
God’s plan is to move in with us. This isn’t a flying visit. God means it when he says that he will never leave. This is forever. Christmas isn’t just for Christmas.
Over the past few years, home for me has meant different postcodes and different combinations of people with harsh loss and unexpected wonderful additions, with joys and sorrows but I find heart-mending comfort that God, - our wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - is committed to making his home with me.
May you know this Christmas that God is here to make his home with you - to stay.
