A Fathers Love Christmas is Seen in God’s Outreach to Man.
Especially the ideas of covering love and healthy vulnerability express a Fathers Love Christmas. These are key to living in love in a way that leads to healthy relationships with God, yourself, and others.
Genesis 3:8, 9 – Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the L
ord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
In this passage, Father God is walking in the garden calling to Adam. Can you imagine His heartache that His children had bought into the lie that He was not for them and was holding out on them? Yet, in vulnerability to hold His heart open, He still calls.
God has always had the capacity to hold His heart open in love to man, even when man turned away. God does not resort to fight or flight tactics to control behavior through anger or the silent treatment. He extends His love again and again so “whosoever will” may respond.
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We see in the above verse that the cross was not God’s first focus. His first focus was how much He loved mankind – therefore He gave His Son. Father reached out with covering love (seeing past outward manifestations of sin to meet the deep inner heart cry) to man even when man was at his very worst.
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Think of Jesus in the manager, so vulnerable. Jesus didn’t hold onto His power as God but came and took on the form of a man to die in our place. (Philippians 2)
What’s the offer here? God sees the heart. Love is offered despite our sin. All we have to do is choose to respond to it.
John 14:18 – I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
The gospel too often is presented as loving Jesus protecting us from angry Father who is so ready to judge the world. Of course God will judge sin because sin hurts people and God loves people. But when justice is placed first, before love, we have an antagonistic “us against them” mindset toward the world.
When you see that the heart of the Father is always first and foremost love, you will live a life of compassion. You will be able to hold your heart open in vulnerability even when it may get hurt, and you will be able to walk in covering love toward others, seeing past their faults and into their deep heart’s needs.
God is still calling out in love today as He did in the garden long ago. Will you open to love this Christmas to a Fathers Love Christmas? This truly is the real Christmas story.