STP Devotional for the Week of 1/6/25
As a child, have you ever looked up to an adult and wanted them to notice you? Maybe there’s been someone you admired and wanted to get to know better. Maybe you wanted your grandparent to play with you and your new toy. What would happen if that person got on the floor to play with you? What if they got on one knee to look you in the eye and ask how you’re doing? How would that make you feel?
We’ve just celebrated the beautiful coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, as a baby. His coming, with all the frailties of being human, is much like a dear grandparent or admired adult getting on the floor to play with you. Jesus came as a tiny baby who needed to be fed, have his diaper changed, and cared for so that you and all of us could better know God the Father. Imagine Jesus learning to take his first steps, he probably fell down like other children. As he grew into a teenager, his mom may have had a hard time keeping his tummy full. (Teenage boys seem to always be hungry!) Maybe he banged his finger with a hammer when Joseph was teaching him carpentry. You get the idea, Jesus, was fully human.
In the New Testament, Jesus refers to himself as “Son of Man” more than any other term. He did this so that his disciples and we would know that he came as Emmanuel – God with us and yet as fully human.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:5-7
He emptied himself of all the glory due him as God and took on skin, bones, and the limitations of being human. He did this to bless us! He did this to get on the floor and let us know he understands what we go through because he lived a normal life doing things like swatting flies, getting tired, and being tempted to sin. He’s been there. He knows what it’s like to suffer. He ultimately suffered the weight of all human sin when he laid his life down to die on the cross for us.
...for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” Mark 9:31
Jesus' ministry on earth was all related to the blessing we would receive through his sacrifice; he stooped down so that we would know the Father better. Let’s step back to the Old Testament where we can see how Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy given to Daniel through an amazing vision. It points directly to – the Son of Man.
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.” Daniel 7:13
Do you see it? Where did Jesus go after he died and rose again? He went to the “Ancient of Days”! Jesus now sits in heaven with God, the Father. Daniel saw what would happen after Jesus died and rose again. His vision came true in Christ.
If you belong to Christ, you are also mysteriously seated with him in the heavenly places. What?!
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… Ephesians 2:4-6
Even though we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, He has work for us to do in our lives here. As we step into the new season at STP, I pray that you would know the Son of Man who put on flesh and bones for you because he loves you, wants to relate to you, and make you His own. I pray you will live each day for Him and that you’ll step into the good works He has for you. If you belong to Christ, He has exciting things for you to do for Him.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
I can’t wait to see what Jesus has for each of us to walk in this year. I pray we each grow closer to Him and remember He’s like a good friend who is willing to get on the floor and understand us better. Now that is love!
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