I shared the other day about a fond memory of expectation on Christmas Eve as a child. Today, Luke 2 brings back a similar fond reminder. Every Christmas morning my dad had a tradition, he read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in the King James Version. I can still quote most of it today. In fact, it’s a tradition we carried on into our family as well. Although I normally use the CSB, my adult children have said “it just isn’t the same, switch back to the King James for Christmas!” … and so we do.
 
It’s a priceless story, one for which the reading this week has prepared us. Malachi said the Lord would come and His coming would bring judgment, healing, and restoration to His people. Then the Psalmist gave our hearts deep words of welcome; “blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Luke 2 puts flesh and bone to the promise and it unfolds in very real place with a very real baby boy.
 
God still catches people off guard today as He did then. The Lord did come near, but nowhere close to the way anyone expected. There was no religious spectacle, no imperial power. He came with humility … born in the city of David, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. His birth was heralded by lowly shepherds, not royal sages. The very same God who had promised to once again dwell among His people had arrived.
 
The absence of an otherworldly entrance reminds us He didn’t just come near, He came near as one of us. He isn’t here to redeem humanity from a distance. He embraced our weakness, our history, our vulnerability, and all the trappings our world had to offer …. But without sin.
The way of Jesus, even now, is the way of the humble. If God came near to us in mercy, alongside us in a very real human life, we can’t follow Him by keeping ourselves safely removed from places where we find loving His image bearers costly. WE follow Him into the low places and learn to embody His nearness with humility, patience, and compassion.
 
On that glorious day, the angels had plenty to rejoice about … the Savior was born, the long-awaited Messiah had come … the Lord was near.

We’ve seen the Lord embodied before at Bethel, Pineal, on Mt. Sinai, Jericho, and other places along the way. But now, he is incarnate… and that’s different. Before this day He was all God and not human at all. Now He surely comes as completely Divine, but also completely human.

What does Luke 2 show you about the humility of God’s nearness? Where might following Jesus require you to move toward others with humble, faithful presence? Even harder to answer is, where can you see in your own life where you struggle to see others through the lens that Jesus did … with grace and compassion?

Father, Thank you for coming near in Jesus. Thank you for not ruling and reigning from a distance, but in real flesh and blood. Teach me to follow your way of humble presence and help me to carry your mercy into real places of need. Especially the ones that cause me to fear. Amen