This Christmas season, one fact has been severely blowing my mind more than it ever has before. This fact is simple. Christ came. Christ, the God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Holy One, the Ancient One of Israel, He put aside His right to rule, His authority, His heavenly home, His well-deserved glory so He could be with us. So He could be one of us. So He could be like us.
Now anyone who has spent enough time in church is like, "Yeah. How have you not known that before?" And it's not that I haven't known this fact. It's just at this point, it has a new comfort to me. That Jesus knows what it's like to be me. Psalm 139 tells us how intimately God knows us. He counts how many times we sit and rise, He knows what we're going to say before we say it, He knows every day we're ever going to live. He knows everything! But the fact that Jesus would say, "Dad I want to go and know what it's like to be them" brings a whole new level of understanding to the equation. God doesn't just know me, He gave up His righteousness to understand what it's like to be me.
This is especially comforting to me now. I'm on the edge of big life-changing decisions. I'm in this weird abyss between my life as a college student and my life as an adult. And sometimes it's hard to find someone who knows exactly how I feel and what's going on. But Jesus does. Jesus transitioned from being a carpenter to full-time ministry in His thirties. He understands transitions. He understands stepping out into the abyss and just trusting God in that. He probably understands how scary that can be. And Jesus knew going into that ministry how rejection from some was inevitable, just as I ponder how not all will always agree with my decisions about my life. So when I'm feeling alone, when I'm lonely and fearful, when I need strength and courage to trust God more, I can lean into the fact that Jesus understands.
And it's not just with these things in my life that Christ can relate. For instance, Joseph, the Earthly father of Jesus, doesn't show up much after the whole Christmas nativity stuff which churches and devotional books focus on ferociously at this time of year. So where is Joseph? Scholars theorize that Joseph either died early in Jesus's life or left them. So if you're struggling with the feelings of loss or abandonment, Jesus probably did too. He gets it.
If Jesus really wanted to, He could have came, lived a cozy but still perfect life on earth with few hardships, and still died as an acceptable sacrifice for our sins. But that's not what He chose. He wanted to walk in our shoes, to learn to relate and understand us better.
So Christ came. He was born a baby completely dependent on others to take care of Him. He grew up and went through awkward adolescent years, zits and all. He worked a secular job and glorified God in that. And then He made that tough transition to give up that security for public ministry where He was hated and mocked. But despite that, He still chose to die for our sins. So wherever you're at in life, Jesus has probably been there and He understands. This is one of the reasons this Christmas that I'm so thankful that little baby Jesus would come to the Earth and experience life like I do. Because I know that He gets me, and it's beautiful to be understood by my Savior.
