God’s commitment to real relationships is so profound and I think sometimes is beyond our imagination. God’s words states that God has always been, is now, and will always be, and yet, in a moment in time, He, they, chose, to make a creature in His own image, in their own likeness. That creature, made to be like Him, was and is, the crown jewel God's glorious creation. That creature is man and woman - and was made to be the children of God, friend of His Son the King… and so He, the Son, would also, come as a child and dwell among us, and now, in us...
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love Ephesians 1:4
And knew what it would take to ensure that relationship…
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26
And God invited man into relationship, not just creator/creation, but, governor and steward. To partner with God in the caring for all that was made, all that had life and breath - all there was…
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:28
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day. Genesis 1:31
15The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 3:15-17
The trees in the garden were there to test our love, to see, did we love… and they chose, and we choose, there, who it is that they would love…
...and what is most astonishing is God's response to this, but he would how do I make a way, but that he is already planned the way...
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me… Hebrews 10:5
Before the beginning of time…
20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 1Peter 1:20
..and He left His glory behind…
6Who, being in very nature a God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature b of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! … and came as a child, born of a virgin…
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isa 7:14
... and the creator, now, would become like the creation and make His dwelling, is Home, among them, with them, and, love them… and out of love, longing for real relationship, gave mankind, gave us the right to become - children of His Father, brothers and sisters of the King - co-heirs, with Him… (Heb 2:13; 1John 3:1,10; 5:2)
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:9-14
And there was nothing about Him that would attract us to Him… except His goodness, His mercy, His grace and His love… He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2...and the relationship grows, and deepens, and furthers the reality of God’s desire to know and be known… I will be their God, and they will be my people and I will dwell with them giving them a Spirit light and life… and God would now, not merely dwell with mankind, but in mankind, making His home, not with them, but, in them…
14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. f And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Rom 8:14-17
And to call us His friend… I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15
And in all of this, we see the goodness of God, encapsulated in this body prepared before, that has nothing in its appearance to attract us to Him, but that of the twinkle in his eye that is His invitation to us, to His Grace, to love, to fellowship, invitation to us, to Him.
And it is ours to do the same. In 1Peter 3, Peter implores us to not allow our beauty to merely consist of our outward adornment, but that our beauty should be that of a quiet inner spirit, a twinkle in our eye that reflects the mercy and grace and love that we have experienced, that we know, and that we practice with one another, that now the world sees...
...that the world would not be attracted to us because of our outward adornment but that they’d be attracted to Him, through us, because they see His love expressed in His mercy and grace, and the transformation of our lives over time, as we learn to love as we have been loved, and no, bring that love in these broken attractive vessels oh, that beautifully accentuates the goodness and the beauty of our Lord and His life in us, that they made too, be attracted to him, who dwells not only among us, but in us.
