Faith

With just two days now before Christmas, we wrap up our Advent journey of looking at what persons need from Jesus in order to believe. As we said starting out, and as we have remembered periodically throughout the past three weeks, most persons don't think they need Jesus to be everything; they just need Him to be one thing. 

The truth is, a lot of unbelievers want to believe. They do. They have heard the promises of this faith that we hold, and it sounds really good to them. They just need that one thing that will push them over the edge of believing and seal the deal for them. They just need to know that one little shred of it, whatever little shred their life most craves at this hour, is real. That it's true. 

As we've seen, for some, that's something physical. For others, it's something spiritual. For still others, it's a need of the soul. But for nearly every unbeliever out there, if they could look in that manger this Christmas morning and see just one thing, that would be all that they need to give their lives to this King. 

The cool thing is that of all the things we've looked at in the past three weeks, Jesus is absolutely all of them. Every single one. No matter what it is that someone brought to Jesus, needing Him to be, He answered very clearly: I Am. 

I am sight for the blind. I am voice for the mute. I am hearing for the deaf. I am movement for the lame. I am healing for the unclean. I am freedom for the captive. I am welcome for the stranger. I am forgiveness for the sinner. I am friend for the unseen. I am peace for the restless and weary. I am joy for the downtrodden. I am hope for the hopeless. I am love for the unloved. 

I Am. 

Not once does Jesus say, "I'm sorry. I can't do that." Not once does He say, "Bad news, bro. That's not who I am." Not once does He back down and say, "Not really my thing" or "I'm not feeling it today." Every time someone cried out to Jesus and said, "Lord, I need ______," the Good News - the Gospel itself - is that Jesus said yes. Jesus was that very thing for that very person. 

I Am. 

Not only was He all that the peoples thought they needed; He was all that they didn't know they did. Every promise made in the Old Testament, every promise uttered since the beginning of the world, He is. He fulfilled every one of them. 

He truly is everything, everything we need and everything we don't know yet that we need. He is everything we understand in our bodies and souls and everything we don't quite get yet. He is all of it, which is something we come to find out only after He's shown Himself to be that one thing that we're looking for. 

All wrapped up in swaddling clothes. 

Immanuel.