Down to Earth: A Christmas Devotional JourneySample

Day 19: God With Us

Reflection

You can guarantee that a tennis match featuring Novak Djokovic or Emma Raducanu will attract thousands of people to Centre Court and that films starring big-name actors like Meryl Streep or Timothée Chalamet are destined to be a box-office success. Because names have the power to draw crowds.

In today’s passage, we learn that people from across the world will hear of God’s Great Name and come to His Temple. In the Old Testament, the first Temple was a deeply impressive building with lavish furnishings. It would have been one of the most impressive structures in the world – think bronze pillars adorned with pomegranates, golden lampstands, and stone tablets with God’s Law inscribed onto them. So many of the details are a deliberate reminder of the Garden of Eden, the place where God dwelt with His people before sin entered the world, and spoke of His Holy and Majestic Character.

When Jesus came down to Earth, He replaced the Temple – we no longer have to go to a physical place to meet with God. Instead, we can meet with Him through the person of Jesus and the Presence of His Spirit wherever we are – including our gyms, offices, homes, and neighborhoods. And that means we can bring Jesus into those spaces through our actions and interactions, molding them to be more temple-like. That doesn’t mean lavish furniture or huge sculptures, but rather increasingly gossip-free lunchbreaks, justice-filled disciplinaries, and joy-filled gym sessions.

Prayer

God, thank You that I can meet with You wherever I am. Please help me to be Jesus to all those I encounter today.