For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts. ~Isaiah 55:8-9
I can’t make sense of God. That’s what makes Him God.
I heard something this morning that was absolutely profound. A truth I’ve heard a thousand times before. Something I’ve believed for twenty years now, but somehow hit me all over again this morning:
Jesus loves us today. Every last detail. Every word, every action, every thought. He loves us. Not the version of us who seeks to follow every rule, ignoring His grace and mercy, as if we could somehow present ourselves perfect to Him who is perfect.
He loves us today. Not a future version of ourselves that we strive for. He’s not waiting for us to finish the degree, get married, or have kids, before He’ll love us. Today. He loves us today.
Because of His sacrifice on the cross, He loves us without judgment. We know that His Holy Spirit works in us to change us into who He created us to be, but that’s the Holy Spirit’s job, not ours. It’s all God. Our job is to just dwell in His presence, trusting that He is enough.
His thoughts are so beyond mine and His ways and His plans are more than I can imagine. If we reduce God down to a list of rules, or a list of “if I do this great and awesome task, then God will have to reward me,” then we’ve missed the point. To use the common phrase, we cannot put God in a box. As if the box we imagine in our minds can possibly hold the God who created the universe! His ways are higher than ours.
When is the last time you stood in awe of our God? Or closed your eyes and breathed in His presence, knowing that you are loved by the God who placed each star exactly right, specifically to reflect His glory (Psalm 19:1)? You are loved by the one who knows the number of hairs on the heads of every person who has ever walked the earth (Luke 12:7).
Our God is truly awe-some.
As we go into the advent season, reflect on that. Our God is worthy of more awe than we could ever realize, broke the rules. He entered into creation, His creation. He saw that we were not able to fathom Him, that our hearts were bent on sin, and we were headed toward death. So, He did what we cannot: He came to save us in the most creative way. He entered into His creation, aligned every prophecy and came just when He said He would, and became a baby, fully dependent upon His creation.
Nativity scenes fill front yards and retail stores right now. That baby in a manger, the real one, not the plastic or wood one in your nativity replica, is God. We look at any other baby and think of the potential that awaits them. For this baby, Baby Jesus, He awaited the cross.
That’s not how I would have expressed love. But His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Enjoy the Christmas displays and nativity plays, knowing that we’re teaching the next generation the traditions of our Savior, but go with a sense of wonder. This God, who loves us down to every last detail of our being, entered into our world in the form of a baby.
He did that for you. Because He loves you.