David Yarbrough
John 1:14 (CSB)
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Think about this pivotal verse for just a moment and let it sink in. Almighty God, who is the creator of everything—heaven and earth, all galaxies, everything—the One who positioned each and every star in the sky, the One who knows and has every hair on every head numbered, chose to become flesh and dwelt among us.
It's difficult for me to wrap my mind around the great lengths that God went through in His desire to commune with us. John 1:14 is overwhelming when we think about the aspect that God stepped down out of heaven and came to this earth and was born into poverty in a dirty middle eastern stable not because He had to but because He wanted to. His desire was to dwell among us, to commune with us, and ultimately to save us.
Think about how we respond to this as humans in this world. We respond by chasing after temporary, eternally worthless things like wealth, fame, and comfort. But God pursued us with such a profound and unrelenting desire to commune with us that He left His heavenly throne to become one of us.
Jesus illustrated this powerfully in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). The story is built on the premise of a loving father who has two sons; the younger of the two is overly eager to receive his inheritance and heads out into the world. The father gives the younger son his share of the inheritance, and the son destroys himself with reckless living and finds himself face down in a pig pen with nothing and no one.
But when he came to his senses, he remembered his father's house, and he considered the servants of his father were better off than him. He decided to go back home, not as a son but as a servant, hoping that his father would accept him back.
Now let's stop and think about the father's reaction, because it's here that we see God's desire. The father, who is a representation of God in this story, sees his son coming from a long way off. He doesn't wait for the son, but instead he takes off running to his son, throws his arms around him, and kisses him. Jesus is showing us the heart of the Father. The son who deserved punishment received mercy and grace. In the same way God doesn't wait for us to return, he runs to meet us when we show even the slightest amount of repentance.
When Jesus took on human flesh, He experienced the joys and sorrows, triumphs and heartaches, from our perspective, not because He needed to understand but because He wanted to relate to us more closely. His desire is for us to know Him, to trust Him, and to commune with Him. Our God is so great yet personally involved in every aspect of our lives and has such a desire to commune with us that He is willing to take the initiative to come to us, even in our wayward state. His desire is not for us to become highly rigid and religious, following a list of rules, but for us to recognize the great lengths He's gone through and His sacrificial love, and to respond to that love in an intimate relationship.
So dear reader, consider this today: the Almighty, Holy Creator of heaven and earth, desires to commune with you not because you deserve it but because He is a gracious, merciful, and loving Father. And that's what's so amazing about the Prodigal Son story, and that's what's so amazing about grace.
2 Timothy 1:9 (CSB)
He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.