When Jesus Draws Near

A morning ponderance…

When we are able to embrace Jesus in His humanity we allow ourselves to reclaim an intimacy with God. This humanity helps us to remember that Jesus’ coming to earth not only restores a broken relationship between humankind and God the Father at the theological level, but that this brings a restored closeness with a God who loves us so much that He continually draws near to us in our everyday moments. Intimacy with God is restored when we see Christ with us ‘as’ we pray, not as a God in the distant heavens who died for us thousands of years ago and who awaits our future coming. Jesus isn’t sitting on a lofty cloud apart from us, rather He walks loving and graciously with us, sits next to us, and puts His arm around us when we pray. Embracing the humanity and deity of Christ together allows us to remain emotionally and spiritually connected to and comforted by God as friend, healer, counselor, and as the One who not only stands with us, but advocates for us, hurts with us, and roots for us in our everyday.

This post is dedicated to Dr. Ray Anderson in congratulations of his retirement from Fuller Theological seminary. I’m grateful to have taken the last course that he taught.