Why Did He Come?

Have you ever tried to reason with a 2-year-old? Or communicate with someone who speaks a different language? Or get someone’s attention who is completely engrossed in something else – like tv or video games?
 
During Christmas, we celebrate Jesus, King of all kings, stepping down from heaven to live as a human amongst His creation. WHY? Because “He SO LOVED the world”! He came to give us this message IN PERSON – in our language, at our level, in a way that we could see, hear and understand.

• He lived as an example to show us the best way to navigate this life.
• He showed us how to love, to the point of giving His life for our sins.
• He brought Himself back to life to show us that He LIVES ON.
• He now beckons us to follow Him in our earthly life, so that we can do the same.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC. I heard a Christmas story that illustrates Jesus’s personal message delivery in a way that sticks with me. Maybe because I am a bird-lover. 😊 I hope you enjoy, but also realize the power of the story. 
 
Once there was a farmer. He and his family were living through a cold, snowy Midwestern winter. He was a kind, decent, good man – generous to his family and honest in his dealings with others. During Christmas time, he found himself quizzical because he just didn’t believe all that “God becoming a man by being born to a virgin” business which the season proclaimed. It didn’t make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise.
 
“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “I know it’s Christmas Eve, but I’m not going with you to church tonight.” He told her he’d feel like a hypocrite by being there, so he would be staying home. So, the farmer’s wife and family went to the Christmas Eve church service as the snow began to fall.
 
The farmer sat down in his chair by the warm fireplace when he heard a loud ‘thump’ against a window. He looked out and saw a flock of birds on the lawn, huddled together, shivering from the snowy cold. They must have been caught in the storm.  They were now desperate to find shelter, and one of the birds had tried to fly through his lighted window.
 
He couldn’t let the poor creatures suffer and freeze. He thought if he could get the birds into his barn, it would provide a warm shelter for them. He put on his coat and boots and headed outside.
 
The farmer opened the barn doors and waited for the birds to fly in. He waited and waited, but the birds didn’t go. Perhaps they didn’t realize that the barn doors were open. Or maybe they were skeptical about entering, or they simply didn’t know they could go in. They surely didn’t understand that there was warmth and shelter, meant just for them, on the inside. They continued to shiver outside.
 
Not easily dissuaded, the farmer grabbed some bird seed and made a trail to the barn. The birds ate some of the small seeds, but they did not follow the seeds into the barn. Some of the seeds were soon covered by the snow and lost. Next, he came behind the birds and tried to shoo them into the barn, but they flew in the opposite direction and then returned to gather into their huddled mass.
 
The farmer realized that they were afraid of him. He reasoned, “They don’t understand that I am trying to help! If only I could let them know that they can trust me – that I’m not trying to hurt them, but rather to give them shelter.” But how? Any move he made seemed to frighten and confuse them even more.
 
The farmer thought to himself,

 
From the writer of Hebrews: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:1-3