In her book, At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon writes of a time when Father Tim, an Episcopal priest, heard a horrible scream from the sanctuary of his church. As he came closer, he began to understand the anguished words that made up the scream: Are…you…up…there?
“Father Tim slid into the pew across the aisle and knelt on the worn cushion. “You may be asking the wrong question,” he said quietly. Startled, the man raised his head. “I believe the question you may want to ask is not, ‘Are you up there?’ but, “Are you down here?’”
This may be the question seeking an answer in our heart and mind as we journey through Lent with its focus on our wilderness experiences and relationship with God.
For a few weeks following the birth of Jesus, we focused on the coming and nearness of God being with us as declared in his name, Emmanuel. But now, as we move back into our daily routines, Christ’s presence seem more distant, once again up in the heavens. He seems no longer to be the Word made flesh and no longer the Word that dwells among us, full of grace and truth. Such feelings may haunt us as we journey through Lent with its various wilderness experiences.
Before Jesus was born, God would visit His people by performing mighty and miraculous works. Whenever He made such visits, God’s people would stack stones or build a monument or erect a synagogue in honor of God’s visit. The erection of material monuments and buildings was their way of saying, “God was here.” The power and presence of God had visited them in a place, and so in order not to forget the event, they constructed a visual reminder.
But when Jesus entered the world the verb tense changed from the past “was” to the present “is” tense. Jesus stepped down out of heaven and made His dwelling among us. He moved into our neighborhood. He took up in-flesh residence on this planet earth so we could better understand and know God.
In writing his Gospel account, John introduces us to Jesus by telling us that this “Word” Jesus who was in the beginning and was with God and was God, became human flesh so we could better understand and have relationship with God. “The Word was made 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.” (1:14).
Christ “the Word” certainly is “up there,” but we must never forget that he is also “down here.” Because of Jesus’ birth, because of the incarnation of God, we now say, “God is here.” In Jesus, God “made his dwelling among us.” and in Jesus, God came into our world and into the everyday, mundane things of life.
Believe it, my friend, Jesus was not an idea of God, nor a picture of God, but God Himself embodied in human form and flesh. He came to assure us that we have God’s full attention and love.
The story is told of a little girl who was frightened one night during a loud thunderstorm. She cried out to her Daddy, “Help me. I’m scared.” Her Daddy comforted her and said, “Honey, you don’t need to be afraid. God loves you and he is here with you in your bedroom, and he will take good care of you.”
The storm continued and after a few minutes, another bolt of lightning and clap of thunder caused the frightened girl to yell again for her Daddy. Again, her Daddy’s response was the same. But the girl replied, “Daddy, I know that God loves me and is here with me, but right now I need someone with skin on to stay with me.”
When Jesus stepped down out of heaven and became human flesh, he was God, “full of grace and truth” with skin on. In His act of becoming human, God experienced and shared in all the pains of human life on planet earth. He felt the pain of loneliness, the hurt of rejection. He felt the pain of grief in losing a loved one to death. He felt the pain of mental and physical abuse.
And because God became human in Jesus, He understands and empathizes with us completely, feeling our every pain. God is here and He feels, He hurts, He cries. Because Jesus became human like us, we can now experience God down here, living in our midst and being lovingly present with us in every joy and pain.
We could never reach Him up there, but in love He came down here to us. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory…” Thanks be to God who loves us so much that He lives within us and shares in all our life experiences.
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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 24, 2021
Ray M. Geigley
Healing Rays of Righteousness 
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