When I stare up into the mysterious night sky and see how infinite this universe is, I get goose bumps as I realize just how insignificant I am and how HUGE God must be to have created all this. In moments like these, I feel both close and incredibly far away from God. There’s so much out there that we don’t even know about. Even with all the advancements in technology, we’ll never know everything about our world. God is like this too and sometimes, because of that, it’s hard to feel close with Him. He feels too big and distant.
God must have felt this too. He created the world, the animals and plants, and us. He was pleased with His creation, especially us humans. In fact, He was so pleased with us He loved us and wanted to be with us. He wanted to know us and He wanted us to know Him.
It reminds me of when I was little and played with my dolls or Little Ponies; I wished I could somehow shrink and play with them and be their friend just like them. I didn’t want to only be the little girl who controlled them; I wanted to be one of them.
As is portrayed in Genesis (“in the beginning”), man was connected with God intimately. Adam and Eve knew God was there with them “in the garden”; they knew He had given them everything they had there, including each other. But this wasn’t enough for them. No, much like my own children, they had everything they could possibly need or want, yet, they wanted more. They even had God there with them but that wasn’t enough either. They confused their innate desire to be with God with wanting to be God; they wanted to know Him and everything He knew.
So, they turned their backs on Him – breaking that intimate bond between God and man – and hid from Him. They pushed Him away, but like a good parent, He did not push back or force them to come back to Him. With a heart filled with sadness as deep as the ocean, He let them go down the road of that choice.
And so they went on their own, away from God but not alone; He stayed with them, waiting and hoping for them to return to Him. He desperately wanted to unite with his beloved people again but He was too hidden from them now; they couldn’t see Him, they hardly remembered Him. They longed for Him, without knowing how to reach Him.
Then, He gave them a promise: I will send you a Savior and we shall be together again.
He knew His people needed Him, but they needed something tangible, something relatable, something…human.
So, instead of staying far away and distant, He came to us. He sent His only Son – Jesus Christ, our Lord – to be with us, to know us and for us to know Him.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (Jn 1:14)
