I Want To Be With You

In less than a week our whole family will be heading to California for Christmas. This morning I was thinking about what Christmas means to me, this year. The title of today's posting, "I Want To Be With You" is what Christmas means to me, for 2008.

When the Word (the Law; the ministry of the prophets) became flesh (Jn. 1.1f.) God was saying, “I want to be with you.” The idea of friendship and/or companionship is heard throughout Jesus’ ministry on earth. From the outset of his life Jesus was always inviting people to be with him as he was heard to say, “Come, follow me” (Matt. 4.19). This is profoundly an invitation to friendship. Sometimes the invitation to friendship by Jesus was accompanied with a challenge. Jesus said to one would-be seeker, "Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Matt. 19. 21). To one person who was “up a tree” (literally) Jesus said, “I must stay at your house tonight” (Lk. 19. 1f.). Jesus said to one who was thought to be a very close friend, “Have I been with you for so long, Philip, that you do not know the way to where I am going?” (Jn. 14.9). At the end of Jesus’ life when he needed a friend more than anything else Jesus asked those closest to him, “Could you not stay (up) with me for one hour?” (Matt. 26.35 f.)

At the point of his death on the cross Jesus’ gaze catches his mother’s tear filled eyes. John, the passionate disciple, sees that the love once shared between mother and son is about to ebb away. As Jesus passes from this life to the next the story tells us, “Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ … from that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” (Jn. 19.26). John got it, the importance of fellowship even, extravagant friendship. The incarnation is not just about God becoming one of us in the baby Jesus. The incarnation takes place anytime, we take the time, to step into a person’s life that is in great need. The last book of the bible includes a final example of Jesus’ strong desire to be with us, “If anyone hears my knock and opens the door I will come in and share a meal with them as their friend.” (Rev. 3.20).

My 2008 message of Christmas is that God wants to be with us. Further, God wants us to take time to be with others, too.

Merry Christmas!