God made Visible, Christmas

Today I want to talk about how Christmas shows us what God is like; Christmas tells us what God has shown about Himself.

And this is important because some people think you can’t know God, whereas, in fact, Christmas means the “invisible” God has become “visible”.

Let me note 3 ways.

First, Christmas shows us that God is CLOSE in the details of our lives.

Sometimes we can think that God is far away, and removed from our lives, however, at Christmas we recall:

God, who eternally existed, entered time and was born of the Virgin Mary.

He entered REAL life, hard life: 

There was no room for Him at the inn: He was born in a stable;

When He grew up, He became a carpenter, doing real work;

He wept in sorrow when His friend Lazarus died;

He sweat blood;

He suffered and died on the Cross

-in all this and much more, Christmas shows God to be CLOSE in human existence, present in the details. 

Second, Christmas shows us that God is ACTIVE in our world.

Sometimes we can think that God is powerless, that He doesn’t DO much, however at Christmas we recall: 

Even before He was born, centuries before, there were PROPHECIES of His birth:

WHERE He would be born (Bethlehem); 

WHICH tribe He would be born to (Judah); 

That He would be born to a VIRGIN

-no one else has ever been announced before His birth!

There were miracles at his birth:

angels sang and guided the shepherds to the manger;

a star appeared and led the wise men;

When He grew up:

He cured the sick: the blind saw, the lame walked, the deaf heard;

He taught the ignorant -about life, about heaven;

He even raised the dead, and rose again after His own death.

Christmas shows that God is ACTIVE.

Third, and finally, Christmas shows that God is REAL:

He took FLESH when He was born of the virgin.

You can only take flesh if you are REAL.

Sometimes people think that God is just an IDEA, a nice but vague thought.

However, Christmas shows the opposite.

The eternal God is transcendent, beyond us, invisible.

But in the event of Christmas, He is invisible no more.

When you next wonder, “Can we know God?”

Think of the crib at Christmas:

the God who sometimes seems distant, has shown Himself to be close and involved;

the God who sometimes seems inactive, has shown Himself to do much;

the God who some speak of a vague spirit, has shown Himself to be definite and to take flesh.

In Christmas we recall that we can know God because He has made Himself known.