By Cherie Werner
If you google “natural wonders of the world,” you will see a wide variety of some of the most magnificent places God has created. The images themselves are spectacular, but if you are able to see one in person, you will stand in awe of our amazing Creator-God. (If you have access to a computer or screen, show several of the natural wonders as you begin. If you cannot show them, describe a few.)
If we take time to examine the enormity as well as the intricate details of nature, we get a sense of God’s care and concern for the world he made. However, the wonders of God’s creation pale in comparison to the wonder of his personal and intimate love for you and for me.
Getting to the Heart
We know love is complex and wonderful. Yet God’s love for us is even more amazing and shows up in layer upon layer upon layer of words and actions from our triune God.
Because of his love for us, God became a child.
Jesus, fully God, Creator of the world, left his reign in heaven to become a child, born in a Bethlehem manger that first Christmas. He submitted himself to the confines of a human body that was subject to pain, sickness, suffering, and death. He gave up heaven’s majesty and glory for a lowly life on earth. “Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God . . . emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5–8 ESV).
Because of his love for us, God became a son. God the Son became Mary’s son.
Jesus humbled himself and was obedient to flawed and sinful parents. He subjected himself to misunderstanding and rejection by the very people he had come to save. He was disappointed, even betrayed and denied, by those he chose to be his closest followers.
He lived among us. He lived like us. He became one of us. Jesus gave up his life in heaven so that he could fully understand what it was like to be one of us. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 ESV).
Because of his love for us, God planned from the very beginning to send a Savior.
Take a moment to think about God before he created the world. Because God is omniscient, knowing all, he knew, even then, that his perfect creation would be scarred by sin and destined for death because of our disobedience. He knew, before he even began, that he would give his Son as a ransom for our rebellion. He knew the pain we would cause him and one another. He knew it all.
Nothing that has happened, nothing that we have done, surprises God. The surprise is that he knew we would mess it up, and he created the world anyway. He created us, knowing he would one day sacrifice his perfect Son on Calvary’s cross in order to cancel sin’s debt and destruction.
What kind of love is that?
GOD. LOVES. YOU! He sent Jesus to show you. He sends his Spirit to remind you.
God’s love for you is unconditional, unchanging, and never ending. He proved it more than two thousand years ago when he sent Jesus to be Immanuel—God with us (Matthew 1:23). Jesus lived with us, died for us, and rose again to give new life to us. Then, before he ascended into heaven to return to his Father, Jesus promised never to leave us (Matthew 28:20).
God fulfilled that promise by sending the Holy Spirit.
God’s Spirit comes to live inside of everyone who receives the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus.
God’s love began before creation, continued with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and lives on inside his children through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Taking It Home
During this Christmas season, remember how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for you (Ephesians 3:18–19).
Editor’s note: Today’s devotion is slightly adapted from the Ministry Message for one of CTA’s new Christmas product lines, The Wonders of His Love.
You are welcome to copy this article for one-time use when you include this credit line and receive no monetary benefit from it: © 2020 CTA, Inc. Used with permission.
Editor’s note: If we take time to examine the enormity as well as the intricate details of nature, we get a sense of God's care and concern for the world he made. However, the wonders of God's creation pale in comparison to the wonder of his personal and intimate love for you and for me.
