UNWRAPPING JOY

God doesn’t just reach down into our world and snatch us out. He must be consistent with himself. Humanity has messed up and, in love, that circle of unbroken unity is willing to alter itself for all eternity. The Son will come—the incarnation of God, fully human and fully divine. We are torn by the loss of a loved one from our family, and it is all so very temporal. God is willing to forever be the human and divine. Jesus doesn’t put on humanity like we put on our jacket in cool weather; he becomes one with us. For all eternity, when the Father speaks to the Son, the language is human.  Jesus unites, bridges, and re-opens the eternal intention of God to invite us messed-up humans into his own inner circle of Trinity life.

It was a good, perfect, generous plan gone bad.  Here is a side of the story we may not easily associate with Christmas Joy. Have we ever considered the disappointment of God? There had been a battle in heaven. The accusations had been harsh—that God is an inappropriate glory hog, that he is arbitrary and selfish at his core, and that living within borders of his design is unnecessarily restrictive. Before we hear the gospel story, there’s the promise of wisdom and freedom in doing your own thing. That circle of Trinity life that was opened, and that inner circle who longed to invite humanity in, was rejected for a counterfeit. In announcing the results, God gives a glimmer of his plan of hope and coming Christmas Joy.

Wholeness and  how being named WholeLife Church can enable our mission and vision fulfillment.

God is eternal. God is love. Love is relational, and God has always existed in the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This holy three-person God is one God yet contained in the three distinct persons of what we call the Godhead. This Godhead shares life together in perfect unity, which occurs when love is expressed, directed, shared.  Like two parents who decide to enlarge their family and make the circle of love wider, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit decided to open and expand their circle with a new creature created in their image. What a grand plan of love! The God of all abundance invites humanity to share in Trinity life. This amazing, generous, self-less open plan is where the story of Christmas Joy begins.