High Definition (Day 16)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ~ Colossians 1:15
…and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
There is a book entitled All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. I never read the book so I can’t speak to the truth of the title, although I can’t say I had reached the peak of my personal wisdom while in Kindergarten. Heck, I’m still not sure I’ve reached any peaks of wisdom now that I am in my 50’s.
I have a different take though. What if I told you that “all you need to know about God is found in the person of Jesus.” The Bible is an beautiful story of God’s pursuit of a prodigal people. Scriptural history gives us a growing and progressive revelation of the nature and character of God. The further we dive into the Old Testament history of God’s activity through the time of the patriarchs on into the establishment of the nation of Israel as his favored people, scripture provides an ever-deepening picture of Yahweh, the true and Living God.
With the opening of the New Testament, this picture of God begins to come in HD (high definition) with our introduction to the person of Jesus. HD refers to a television screen that produces a picture of very high resolution and quality (720p to 1080p). I can remember seeing the vivid difference in the picture quality when I bought an HD TV a few years back. You could see freckles on the Quarterbacks nose when
watching a football game. Now they make 4K TVs which are Ultra HD.
The apostle Paul stated that Jesus provides us with a picture of God that is in HD, rather Ultra HD. He didn’t use those terms but here is what Paul said, “(Jesus) is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). The Son of God takes away the mystery concerning God’s nature and character, and gives us a full picture of what God is really like. The Word became flesh so we could truly know God. Jesus is God with some skin on. He is the very human face of God. Remember the line from the popular Christmas song Mary Did You Know – “Mary did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod, and when you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.”
God invites us to come face to face with Himself in the person of Jesus. The manger was in part God’s invitation to a personal relationship. Whatever your image of God might be, you must rethink it in light of Jesus. There is not act in all of history that is more self-revealing of God than for Jesus Christ to become incarnate in flesh, live among us, and then offer his life for us on the cross. The love of God would cause the Light of the World to step into our darkness to rescue us by bearing our punishment on the cross.
Read the Gospels again with fresh eyes and gaze deeply into the life of Jesus. With every word he speaks, every action he takes, and every relationship he makes, Jesus provides an Ultra HD image of our God. The gift of Jesus each Christmas is the reminder of God’s invitation to know Him, to really know Him in an intimate and personal way through His Son Jesus. Well, do you know Him? Do you want to keep getting to know more of Him, and to know Him more?