Advent Meditations: The Wonders of His Love
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The final advent candle of Christmas represents love. How fitting to spend the last few days before Christmas thinking on “the wonders of His love” as the hymn, “Joy to the World” puts it. I think most people get the fact that Jesus’ birth is a huge proclamation of God’s love. We’re told this in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” God loved the world, and specifically the people that He created, so He gave His Son, His only Son, as a sacrifice offered up in substitution for our sins.
Oh, the wonders of His love.
Who would ever think of something like this? Think about God in eternity, perfect in His existence; and yet, something stirs within His creative being to make something. So with the Word of His mouth, the cosmos is born; the angels, the stars, the moon, the sun, the planets, and earth. Then He speaks the features of our world into existence and populates it with living things—everything from DNA and atoms to plants, birds, insects, animals, fish, and a man and a woman. Yet, Creation wasn’t the end. He never intended to just create and then watch to see what happened. He always intended to interact with mankind—to fellowship with them, as evidenced by God walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Oh, the wonders of His love.
Then, when Adam and Eve sinned, God provided for them, clothing them by killing an animal to cover their nakedness. Even more importantly, He displayed His infinite patience in not slaying them immediately when they sinned. Their sin offended His holiness as the Bible tells us that the payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Yet they didn’t die; they lived. First Corinthians 13:4 says that love is patient. Patience holds back righteous indignation. And how many times since then have we—have I—sinned against Him?
Oh, the wonders of His love.
Just as God’s love moved Him to provide covering for Adam and Eve, His love moved Him to send His Son to pay the penalty of all our sins. His love planned and prepared and paved the way for the appointed time when the little babe in Bethlehem would be born. The Bible says we can’t even count how often God thinks of us (Psalm 40:5)! God is personal, involved, and concerned about His children. He eloquently reminds us of this when He says in Isaiah 49:15-16, “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”
Oh, the wonders of His love.
No matter what your year has been like or even these short weeks of the Christmas season, we can rejoice as we consider the Lord’s great love put on display at Christmas.
What wonders of His love have captivated your thinking this Christmas? I’d love to hear from you!
