SCRIPTURE
JOHN 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Bible is many things. It's the story of a couple who became a family that became a nation that gave birth to a movement that would transform the world. It's a book about flawed and fragile people who fail and fall, who stumble so completely that it seems there's no way out and no way back yet who are nevertheless used by a God who is always greater than our greatest failures. It's a book that teaches us who God is and what God is like--and therefore who we are and what our lives are to be like. It's a book that shows us the way of light and life and teaches us to reject and renounce the way of darkness and death.

The Bible is so much, but at its heart, above and beyond anything else, before and after everything else, it's a book about relationship. It's the story of a King who desperately loves his people; a Father who longs for intimacy with his children, and who acts conclusively and decisively, at immeasurable cost to himself, to restore that intimacy and renew that relationship.

The staggering truth at the heart of holy Scripture is that God wants us. He is willing to move heaven and earth to be near us. He is willing to leave the throne of heaven, gladly laying aside the robes of majesty and honour and glory, all so he could become Immanuel--God with us.

God doesn't need us to complete him. He is perfectly fulfilled without us. Erom before time began, God existed in the loving community of the holy Trinity. He doesn't need us to satisfy him. But he loves us so much that he invites us into his already perfect fellowship. He draws us into that Trinitarian dance of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He pulls out a seat at the table and invites us to sit down and feast.

It's an incredible thought that God wants to be with us. When we were yet unlovely, unloving, and unlovable, nevertheless he set his heart and mind upon us. He drew near to us so we could draw near to him.

I once asked a member of our church, "Have you ever considered the simple truth that God enjoys your company? That he wants to spend quality time with you? That it's not a chore or a burden or an obligation—but that he delights in it?"

That's the way it was always intended to be. Before the fall of humanity, the Lord God would come down and walk with Adam and Eve and talk with them. He would share himself with them and allow them to share themselves with him. Even though his knowledge was perfect and his power complete, he still allowed these oh-so-limited beings to enjoy relationship with him.

And the entirety of salvation history has been about restoring that damaged relationship, recreating that lost intimacy, renewing that broken fellowship.

God doesn't need us, but he wants us so desperately that he always takes the initiative, always makes the first move, always speaks the first word. He loves us in a way that is so great, so staggering, so impossible, that he became human and made his dwelling among us. Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it in his translation of John 1:14, God moved into the neighbourhood—all for love of us.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION

Do you agree or disagree with the idea that the Bible is ultimately a story about relationship? Why or why not?

If God doesn't need us, and if we tend to mess up God's plans just by being ourselves, why do you think God chooses to be in relationship with us?

PRAYER

Write a prayer about the relational aspect of God's character.