Today, our phones have become our photo albums. We take pictures of our food, our friends, our family, our vacations, and all manner of daily activities. The list is endless. We scroll through them reviewing the memories captured with technology we don't understand but can't live without.
But how do we capture a picture of God? He is everywhere and nowhere. It is easy to make it a guessing game that often weakens our faith rather than strengthening it.
Christmas gives us a photo album for God. God took a picture of Himself and sent it to us as Jesus. The Gospels become God's photo album., available for our review anytime. See Jesus in a manger? That's God. . See Jesus touching lepers? That's God.. See Jesus blessing the children. That's God. See Jesus walking on water? Don’t you think the God who separated water from dry land could accomplish a buoyancy that only its Creator could?. See Jesus and the woman accused of adultery? See how Jesus understood her need for compassion and forgiveness more than shame and punishment? That’s God at His best!
But the picture we don't pull out of this album at Christmas is not an easy one to look at. It is Jesus on the cross. It is Jesus feeling the splinters against his back from a tree he created. Keep looking. See Jesus losing blood and breath and life. This picture is God reaching for us. This is God becoming love in the most tangible way possible.
Anything that makes us believe God is far off, distant, or uninvolved is a desecration of everything God came to say at Christmas. Colossians reminds us that
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created
and is supreme over all creation. Colossians 1:15, NIV
At Christmas, this verse reminds us that Jesus is God made visible. Jesus is God come close. Jesus is God for us!
But how are we using the pictures God sent us in Jesus? As we review the Christmas story this season, let us remember it was God in the manger crying as baby and let us hear those cries for us. They are cries for the way our world is coming apart. They are cries for everything that continues to separate people from the love God ishared with us in Jesus.
Today, if you really want to see a photo album of God, read the Gospels. See God on earth. Live the wonderful mystery that Jesus is God made visible and never stop looking at this picture of all love.
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