25 Days of Celebration Christmas Devotional 2021

DECEMBER 24 JESUS MOVED INTO OUR NEIGHBORHOOD By Ray Pritchard President, Keep Believing Ministries

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

“Dwelt” is an unusual word. It means “to live among.” One version uses the phrase “moved into the neighborhood.”

Perhaps an illustration would help. Let’s suppose that I owned an ant farm, and for reasons known only to myself, I loved those ants more than anything in the world. How could I communicate my love to them? I could shout, “I love you,” but because I speak English and they speak ant, they wouldn’t understand. I could write them a letter, but they couldn’t read it. I could shrink down to ant size, but they wouldn’t recognize me. But if I had supernatural powers, there is one thing I could do: I could take on the form of an ant, be born as an ant, live as an ant, and communicate as they do. Then I could find a way to say, “I love you.” That is what God did. He didn’t mail a letter or shout from heaven. He did the one thing we could understand. God Himself came down and entered the human race. He moved into the neighborhood and became just like us so we would hear Him saying, “I love you.”

It’s so simple that you know it must be true. Only God would have done it that way.

One of the verses of a famous Christmas carol says it very well:

Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord! Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of the Virgin’s womb: Veiled in flesh the God-head see; Hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel. Hark, the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”

Here is some really good news: Jesus moved into our neighborhood. Have you met your new neighbor yet?

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