PRESENCE

 DECEMBER 5, 2022

Genesis 11:4

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves”

Do you ever worry life is out of control? It's an experience common to all of us, isn’t it? There is an old story from the Bible about some builders. This tower of Babel, which even non-Christians are probably vaguely familiar with, is often thought to be about human pride. However, there is another consideration I wonder about. In the ancient world, a world where life seemed like it might always be on the edge of chaos (floods or drought) it was thought necessary to get the gods on their side. A tower was a way of inviting a god down into a city to protect it. The Creator God, condemned this idea, and offered a different approach.

Ancient people worried about life and its uncontrollable chaos, just like we do. They wanted to take control by arm-twisting the gods into attending to their needs. Our God doesn’t work like that. You can’t arm-twist or even sweet talk God to make him do something you want. You can ask, though. And God does promise us his very presence in our life, his grace, mercy, and care when we walk the Jesus way. There are no easy answers to the problems of this life, yet we have a God that took on a physical body to be with us. He understands you and me. That’s the story of Christmas. John 1:14 says “the word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood”. (The Message)

How would knowing you have the very presence of God in your life be a comfort and give you hope? What would change for you in life?