Visible

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law Galatians 4:4

This Christmas season, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the visible manifestation of God. He came to earth to fulfill the covenant that God had made with people. In ancient days, Hebrew men had been instructed to become circumcised as a symbol of their obedience to God- a mark that they were his people. That symbol, of course, was not visible to others. It was an act of obedience to indicate allegiance to God as his people.

The mark of God, in the fulfillment of his covenant in Jesus, is love of others. Not that the Hebrew people weren’t loving people- indeed they were. Yet in that distant and ancient culture, those who were “in the tribe” were the ones who were to be accepted. Those outside the tribe were viewed with suspicion- understandable when the Hebrews were a minority people often not accepted and persecuted by others in their culture.

Jesus was the visible manifestation of God’s love for mankind. It is now our mission to spread that mission to the world.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be the messengers of the presence of Jesus and his mission to love the world, Amen