God’s Unfailing Love

The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8

Needless to say the Christmas season is very different for my family this year.  As I was thinking about that recently, the verse above came to mind.  This verse speaks volumes of the Lord’s never-ending faithfulness to His children:

- He is today the same God of the Old Testament who led His chosen people, the Israelites, and who now leads all who are willing to follow by faith.

-  He will never leave us or forsake us.

-  We can follow Him without fear, for He will guide us to where He wants us to go, according to His perfect plans for us.

- He is the Author of stories, both ours individually as believers, and corporately as His Church.

- His love is unconditional, and His grace and mercy are infinite.

Christmas is the ultimate affirmation of the Lord’s unfailing love for us.  The season reminds us of the Lord’s fulfillment of one of His many Old Testament promises of a coming Savior as we read in Micah 5:2: Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times. 

The birth of the Baby born in a manger in Bethlehem brought hope and made possible our salvation.  John’s Gospel makes it clear that there is only one way of salvation: Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.   

                                          John 14:6.

Stepping out of heaven and into history, taking on the attributes of humanity, living a sinless life, dying for our sins, and defeating death our Lord Jesus has made a way for us to come to the Father.

Because of Jesus there will come a day when death no longer exists.  But until that day, death in this life is still our reality.  When dealing with the death of our loved ones, we have the assurance that the separation is only temporary:

When He has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove His people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken.                                                       Isaiah 25:8

He is forever our Messiah, our King of kings and Lord of Lords, and our Prince of Peace. And not only that, He gives us the strength to persevere as we encounter those times of grief and sorrow. Because of the hope we have as we look to the future we can have joy even during times of loss.

Through the birth of Jesus we have the assurance that the Kingdom of God is accessible to all who believe:

See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”  Matthew 1:23

Indeed, our Immanuel dwells among us.  This King wasn’t born among the elite, the wealthiest or royalty from a worldly viewpoint.  Shepherds and wise men were on equal terms when they came to visit Him.

God’s story began before His first act in creation.  As Micah 5:2 reminds us, from antiquity He planned to send us a Savior.  Mary and Joseph had to trust His story.  They were resolute in fulfilling the Lord’s mission for them as they dealt with all the challenges before them, ever trusting their part in God’s plan to redeem His creation.  And from their commitment and trust, our Immanuel was brought into our world, exactly as the Father had planned it.

Likewise, He has a mission for us.  It’s not always easy to stick with His plan.  In this fallen world we encounter challenges and disruptions along the way, many of which are heart breaking, discouraging and painful.  I testify from personal experience that our Lord doesn’t abandon us; He walks with us through those crises.  It is important that we recall His goodness to us over the years.  He has faithfully taught us to trust His plan and we are assured that we can trust Him going forward.

While it is true that the Lord has individual and specific plans for us, the Scriptures make it clear that everyone of us is called to share the wonder of Christmas – the birth of Jesus and the hope of salvation available to all.  He invites us to surrender our plans and ideas for how the story should be and lean on His trustworthy hand to accomplish His perfect plan.  May it be so as we celebrate our Immanuel – God with us!