Advent 2025 is past. Christmas is here. The time of waiting is over. It’s time to rejoice in His arrival. Jesus, God with skin on, and born to a humble blue collar family, came to carve the way out of death. Rejoice. He is Love. And this is how He defines His love.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:13 NIV
Today is a day when by and large we gather with family and friends – regardless of differences or opinions or traditions – to celebrate Christmas. Dear ones come into town or drive over, and for a moment in time, we do our best to focus on what we love about each other.
Soon we will step right into a new year. Are you ready to leave ‘25 behind? I’m ready for a new year with a new word focus. It’s going to be a year of fortification. However, I am not leaving the lessons of ‘25 behind. Nor will I soon forget the year of intimate dwelling in His tent, and the buoyancy of this year of pondering what it means for me that God is with me 24/7. His presence and my recognition of Him has marked me in a fabulous way.
Not coincidentally, we wrap up our Advent weeks by focusing on the concept of LOVE. What scenario could possibly explain love better than God’s always existent plan to send His Son to save us. And so, not surprisingly, I have simply pondered Jesus during this final week leading up to our grand Jesus birth-day celebrations with friends and family.
I have pondered Him as I finish reading the New Testament with The Bible Recap, and I have pondered him through friends and family sharing the stories of the year in greeting cards. I have seen Him in the faces of many friends and strangers. I have heard Him in the preaching of the Gospel. In song, the hymns of this season I have pondered long the evidence of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NIV
And so of course my Christmas anthem 2025 has been O Come, O Come Immanuel. And this very familiar scripture from 1 Corinthians – commonly referred to as the love chapter.
For decades I’ve read this prescription for love written by the apostle Paul, and felt disappointed. I’ve caught myself listening almost cynically as these words are often read in wedding ceremonies. it’s as if we read these precious descriptive words as a wish with a penny thrown into a fountain. But, flip the script, a common phrase this year. These words are describing our infallible God.
Read the love scripture again with Christ as your focus. I don’t have to feel disappointed or discouraged that and so many others fall short of this love requirement. Because without God being the definition of LOVE, it is impossible for me to live love in a meaningful way.
It’s all Him. God is love. So, instead of love, fill in the name of Jesus, Immanuel. Jesus is patient. Immanuel with us is kind. Jesus does not envy. Christ does not boast and is not arrogant. God with us does not dishonor… He is not self-seeking or easily angered.
The word of God says that through Christ’s blood sacrifice our sins are remembered no more. I encourage you… keep reading love as the name of Jesus. He is love. He loved us first, and to prove His love for us He came to us with skin on. He came with a mission of sacrifice and a purpose to defeat sin and death.
God rejoices in truth. God always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, and never fails. God is Love.
I pray today you will reflect on the truth that you are LAVISHLY loved by God whose very nature is LOVE. He made you and He loves you enough to come toward you, rescue you, cleanse you from all depravity, to give you life abundant, and then in the fullness of time, return for you to take you to your home with Him forever more.
Immanuel, God with us.
Eyes on Jesus and Shine,
Lisa
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