This week I’m taking time to think deeply about what Christmas really means to those who have put their faith in Jesus. I hope to present “seven gifts” that Jesus gave us when He left heaven to enter our earthly dimension in human form.

Gift #1 – Jesus was born so that we could be born again.

Gift #2 – Jesus walked so that we could worship.

The Old Testament teaches that no one can see God, and live (Exodus 33:20-23). God is too holy for sinful men to gaze upon. When He spoke to Moses, He appeared in a burning bush. He spoke from the dark clouds covering Mount Sinai, and He appeared in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness. In a very unusual event, Moses, Joshua, and seventy elders were invited up to the mountain where God appeared (Exodus 24:9-11); scripture says they “saw God” but the description seems to indicate they saw a pavement of sapphire above their heads, under the feet of God.

Isaiah was given a vision of God and was faced with the reality of his own sin in the light of God’s holiness (Isaiah 6). He described the throne room, the seraphim, and the Lord sitting high and exalted, the train of His robe filling the heavenly temple.

It was very important to God that His people not create a false image of Him, so much so that this was the second commandment. Throughout the Old Testament, God remained a mysterious Spirit, speaking to and through His prophets, yet not fully revealing Himself. Those who worshipped God had to do so completely by faith.

Until Jesus.

Jesus walked this earth so that we could have a more complete picture of God. When we see Jesus, we’ve seen God.

John 1:18 – No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Hebrews 1:1-3a – God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. 

John 14:7-11 – If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 

Colossians 1:15 – He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Matthew 1:23 – Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.”

What a wonderful gift! We don’t have to make up our own ideas of God; when Jesus came, He revealed God to us, enabling us to know who it is we worship.

As Jesus spoke and taught and interacted with His disciples, and both those who believed and disbelieved, He was revealing the Person and nature of God.

Do you wonder what God would say? Read the words of Jesus.

Do you wonder what God would think? Read the words of Jesus.

Do you wonder how God would react? Read what Jesus did.

Do you wonder where God would go? Read where Jesus went.

Do you wonder what God thinks of you? Read what Jesus says.

Do you wonder what God expects of you? Read what Jesus taught – about salvation, about heaven, about hell, and about eternal life.

Jesus walked, so that we could worship … and in walking He revealed the way to God.

John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Jesus came to personally show us the way back to the Garden, back into sweet fellowship and unity with His Father. We don’t have to imagine God; we simply look to Jesus.

Have you opened the gift of true worship – of seeing God for who He is?

See Jesus…see God. He is the only One worthy of our worship.