The Christmas adverts are out: tables heaving with food, well-dressed people, beautiful homes, extravagant gifts, everything bright and shiny. Anyone noticed the cost-of-living crisis? The eat or heat question? Strike action? Or wondered how much of a feast you can manage from a food bank?
… and we’ve all got something in our eye!
We love how normal the hero is – pudgy round the middle, not naturally cool, he eats lunch at his desk and leaves the present-wrapping to his Mrs.
We love how much he loves the girl – I’ll learn about your world, go where you go, love what you love and hurt like you hurt.
We love the gift he gives her – an extravagant amount of his time and a place in his home.
We love that she gets a chance to belong in a family.
We love that a father like that is on offer at Christmas.
“See what love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1
You are loved like that.
You have a normal hero – Jesus, God the Son in human form, was an ordinary-looking bloke, born in poverty, more often found at a fish picnic than a grand banquet.
You’re loved – he steps into your world, goes where you go, loves what you love, hurts like you hurt and takes on your sin, because he loves you.
You’re offered a costly gift – an extravagant amount of his time, his body, his blood, a place in his home for all eternity, his family name, his record, his all.
It’s not surprising that we shed a tear when we see an on-screen father who loves like this. He’s a pale reflection of the perfect father we were made to belong to, the true Father of Christmas who sent his son so that we might live at home with him forever.
This Christmas wouldn’t you love to meet this Father?
Let’s remember and delight in him, as we champion the cause of those who offer homes for good.
