“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves Me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them.”
John 14:23 (NIV)
What comforting words of Jesus, telling us that when we love and obey Him, He and His Father will come and make their home with us. One of the simplest visual illustrations of this is the Nativity scene that we see every year at Christmas. Joseph, Mary and Jesus all did whatever God asked of them, and as a result, God Almighty literally came and made His home with them.
Mary obeyed by agreeing to give birth to, carry, and be the mother of the Son of God. Joseph obeyed by marrying her and being a loving father to the long awaited Messiah. Later, Jesus obeyed His heavenly Father, by doing all that was required in being the Lamb of God for all mankind. There was nothing simple about any of them, yet they modeled the essence of obedience, especially during the most difficult stages of their lives.
Just as Mary and Joseph were given opportunities to say yes to God’s purpose and timing, we also have similar moments in our lives, to say yes to God.
Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, but it says that He was “led by the Spirit” there to be tempted by the devil.
(Matthew 4:1)
If He was led there by the Spirit, it proves that while we are in a wilderness stage of our life, God is in it with us. He used those days in the wilderness to strengthen Jesus, just as He uses those days in our lives to strengthen us. As we say yes to Him, God comes to make His home with us and strengthen us during our time in the wilderness.
God intersects all of our lives in ways that require our obedience and surrender, especially in the most difficult times. He doesn’t always work within our timing, but His timing is always perfect. His Holy Spirit helps us to come to peace with His timing, even when we cannot fully understand it.
When I made a plan to retire in October of 2023, I had no idea that my adult son would have an accident in September of that year, placing him in a Nursing home, with a traumatic brain injury. In the beginning, as I would visit Jon each week, it felt like I was in a wilderness, but God started to show me that He wants to use my time there, to share His kindness with others, in ways that I never could have imagined.
In all of the unexpected and painful situations we face, we must remind ourselves of the most central message of Advent, which is “God with us.” God made it clear to me that He is always with us, because He was with me throughout my wilderness.
Jesus told us that loving and obeying Him is the key to God making His home with us. We overcome evil, in the same way that Jesus did during those forty days, and we do it through loving and obeying God. There is a mysterious, divine strength that comes to us during the most painful, dark, and confusing times in our lives. It’s easy to obey Him during the good times, but by loving and obeying Him in the wilderness, He comes and makes His home with us, as Jesus said.
The next time we pass a Nativity scene, we can remind ourselves that Joseph, Mary and Jesus set the precedent for obedience that physically brought God to them. When we look in the manger, we can be assured that God is truly with us, and if He is with us, we can do anything, because He gives us strength.
Lord, thank you for giving us strength during the hardest times in our lives, and help us to keep our eyes on the manger, which is the greatest proof that You are always with us. Amen
