God's Deep Desire to Reach us by Sister Henny Qaiser

God’s deep desire to reach us, to bridge the gap between Him and us:

Christmas is getting closer and closer as we approach December and churches are starting to prepare for their Christmas programs. Have you ever wondered why churches are so full at Christmas time and why people suddenly feel they should go to church even if they never go during the year? Why do they come? Some come to show that they are ‘Christians’, or because they like the Christmas songs or food, or they believe that God might be angry if they do not come to the Christmas service.

    One thing we need to remember is that the essence of Christmas is not Christmas trees, nice food, new clothes, sending cards and so on. On the day of Christmas we remember the Gift that God gave us in Jesus Christ. Jesus’ birth was the visible beginning of the fulfillment of God’s great plan to reach us human beings, who are so far from God.

   Christmas is the expression of the deep desire of the Father to be with His creation. Christianity does not start with Christ, but with a loving Creator, who is as a Father whose children are far away and lost.

   We can see Father’s desire to be close to us human beings all through the Old Testament. When He created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He used to come in the evenings to walk with them in the Garden. He made them in His Image so he could communicate with them and have fellowship with them.

   Then they fell in sin, by listening to the Devil, and that spoiled the beautiful close relationship they had with God. Now sin was in the place of a relationship, sin always destroys what is good, in every relationship.

   Then God promised a Deliverer who would destroy the power of the Devil.

See Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity
       between you and the woman,
       and between your offspring and hers;
       he will crush your head,
       and you will strike his heel."

Afterwards we can see God looking for people to walk with, like Enoch, who walked with God and then was taken up into heaven. There were not many human beings, though, with whom He could walk. Noah was one, and later Abraham, the friend of God. God chose Abraham out of idolaters to make a nation of people who would be His people.

   It took about 400 years before God would truly make Abraham’s descendants into a people and a nation. He promised them that if they would be obedient, then: “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.” (Leviticus 26:12).

This was Father God’s great desire, to walk among His people and be their God! Sadly to say, His people whom He had chosen kept failing Him and kept going after other gods, deserting the One who had given them life.

   Again and again He tried to win their hearts back to Him, by sending deliverers, kings, and prophets to them. His people would come back to God, and then fall back into the same sins. It was difficult for the Jewish people to serve and love a God they could not see, while the other nations had idols they could see and touch.

   Father God even invited His people, to come to Him and He would quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger. Isaiah 55:1-2 – “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

   Come, come, said the Father! But still they did not come. The distance was too great.

    Then came the time for the fulfillment of the great plan of God. No longer would He just send His Word through His prophets, He would now send His Son, who was the Image of the invisible God. All God’s fullness was in Him. He would come down and live among His people.

   Christmas is the celebration of this great day when God’s Son became a man, the Incarnation! When the gap between God and man was bridged in Jesus Christ! What a miracle! Now, human beings would be able to see God with their eyes, hear His voice and be able to touch Him and have fellowship with Him!

1 John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

   Jesus’ other name is Emmanuel – God with us (God told this to Joseph in a dream through an angel). Jesus was God with us. He showed us what God is like. His nature, His love and goodness, and tenderness, His care for the lost and suffering, and His holiness and hatred of sin and unrighteousness!

   As Jesus went around, doing good, healing and delivering people from the power of Satan, He was revealing His Father God’s nature. Jesus is just like His Father!

Do you like Jesus? Do you want to know Him? Then you would want to know God the Father too, because Jesus is exactly like His Father and He was always pointing to His Father! He wanted people to know His Father and to meet Him.

   He even told the story of the prodigal Son, to show the great love of the Father, longing to have us in His Embrace!

   Then came the Cross – the ultimate revelation of the love of God the Father for us, sinful people! God gave His one and only Son to die a horrible, painful death, to bear our punishment, so he could remove the barrier between us, sinful man and Him! He paid the ultimate price for us. Doesn’t that show you how much God desires to have us as His children? Jesus gave His life willingly – He was not forced. It was His love too. The love of the Father and the Son did not stop at anything – no price was too high for us, for you and me!

   Then came Easter, the Resurrection, when God raised Jesus from the dead. The power of death and Satan could not overcome the power of God! He was stronger!

   Now Jesus was alive again and would never die again. He is Alive forever! That little baby of Christmas is now the Risen Lord, King of kings and Lord of lords, who has all the authority in heaven and on earth!

   When Mary Magdalene met the Risen Lord, she wanted to hold on to Him. She had Him back who had changed her life and had delivered her from 7 demons! I believe all disciples and followers of Jesus wanted to keep Him on earth, so they could always talk with Him, and have fellowship with Him whenever they wanted.

   Then Jesus told Mary, that He had to go to His Father in heaven. You can imagine her disappointment! Jesus had shared, even before His death, that He would have to go, but that He would send another Comforter just like Him:

“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7).

   Why did Jesus have to go? He said it was better. Why? Because although Jesus had a   resurrected body He could be only at one place at a time. If He would be in Jerusalem, He could not be in another place, like Bethlehem, or New York, or Lahore!

   Also He could be with His followers, yes true, but not in them! But the One He would send, the Holy Spirit, would be able to come into those who lived Him! The great desire of God to walk among His people would be finally fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost!

  When the Holy Spirit was poured out (after Jesus had arrived in heaven at His Ascension), God came into the hearts of His followers! He would live in them forever and have fellowship with them. The gap had been bridged. The distance was no more.

   The Holy Spirit is God in us.

                     Not only God above us and around us, like in the O.T.

                     Not only Jesus, Emmanuel, living among us, visible.

                     Now God is in us, never to leave us again.

                     Always available and close to us!

That was and is God’s great desire! Not that His people would just celebrate Christmas once a year, but that they would go on to experience Easter and Pentecost!

Do you want God in your life, in your heart? Do you want Him so close that He is in you, all the time?

Come to Him and ask Him to come and live in you!

Sister Henny Qaiser