Day 27 Advent Devotional | December 30th
1 John 3:1-3
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Christmas is for children, no truer words are ever spoken. To see Christmas through the eyes of a child melts the heart of any red-blooded adult. The wonder and the anticipation of it are tailor made for the heart of a child.
What is begun on that first Christmas finds its culmination in today’s verse. Jesus came to show us the magnificent and mighty love of God. It is a love that knows no bounds, limitless in reach and timeless in effect. This all-encompassing love of God results in our becoming children of this wonderful Father and that is no small thing. We become His and He becomes ours through Jesus. Of all the gifts you have received across all the Christmases you have experienced, there is no greater gift than this.
No matter how old we become, let us never fail to remember that we are children of our Heavenly Father if we have indeed trusted Him with our heart. There is no greater thing we can be than this – a child of God. You may suffer under the weight of another’s opinion of you. You may lament that you are not all that another is or has been. Perhaps you struggle with the very thought of who you are in your own mind’s eye. You can lay all of that aside today in comparison to what you truly are in Christ Jesus. No one has a higher opinion of you than your Heavenly Father. No one loves you with an everlasting love like He does. If you doubt it today, look no further than the manger, where the God of the cosmos ordained to be born, for you. Fix your heart’s eyes on Him.
Prayer: Lord, I am often tossed about by my perceived place in this world. I sometimes struggle with who I really am at the deepest part of me. Teach me to rest in being Your child. Let that be more than enough. Your thought of me is my identity. I long to find my security, my significance, and my self-worth in You alone. Thank you for loving me enough to make me Your child.