Day 4: In the least of these
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me’ (Matthew 25:40).
Our Father, our God, our Savior, You are love. Love comes from You...we love because You first loved us (1 John 4:7, 16,19).
You gave us a love unequal to any in our human experience, and established it as the standard for us to love each other. You impressed on us the importance of Your command to love one another— teaching us that the measure of our life actions will be our service to the least of these (Matthew 25:31-41).
But You did not just give us Your command and leave us on our own. As the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2), You taught us by example, demonstrating Your own love to us even though You are God, and we less than the least (Romans 5:8).
Being in very nature God, You emptied Yourself of all that was due You as equal with God, and made Yourself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness... (Philippians 2:6-7). And in coming to dwell with us, You emphasized Your sweeping and impartial love for all humanity with Your particular inclusion of the least.
From the choice of human lineage and human parents, to the birth announcement, the circumstances around the delivery, the visit of the Magi, and the escape from Herod, You worked through the messy and the sordid, the broken and the weak to launch Your perfect plan.
Lord this Christmas, as we hear the call to "Come and Behold Him," may we see You in the people and the circumstances around us. May we see You in the shunned and the disdained, the outcast and the outsider, the foreigner and the refugee, the poor and the humble— mindful that You chose all the least of these to bring Your love to the least of us.
Remind us of the direct connection You make between our love for God and our care and concern for others:
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (1 John 4:20-21).
Remind us that we have nothing to recommend us to You, yet You demonstrated Your love for us by dying for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).
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