Before Jesus was born God visited His people performing mighty and miraculous works. God's people would stack stones or build a monument or erect a synagogue in honor of God's revelation. The physical erection of 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 they constructed a reminder. But when Jesus entered the world the verb tense changed from past to present -- from "was" to "is."

Because of Jesus' birth, because of the incarnation of God, because the Word became flesh, we now say: "God is here." God is present in all of His splendor and glory. We don't have to erect structures to remind us of God's visited presence. God is already here.

"God is here" is more than a theological doctrine, it has practical implications. What does "God is here" mean to us?

Jesus became a man to show us God

When Jesus became a man He showed that God was not merely a principle but a person. Jesus was not an idea of God, not a picture of God, but God Himself in human form.

Two young men on a battlefield in World War II made it to the safety of a foxhole in the midst of enemy fire. As they looked out before them across the battlefield they perceived the horror of dead and dying men, twisted barbed wire, the earth scarred with deep holes left by cannon fire. Men lifeless, others crying out for help. Finally one of the men cried: "Where in the world is God?" As they continued to watch and listen they soon noticed two medics, identified by the red cross on their arms and their helmets, carefully making their way across the perilous scene. As they watched, the medics stopped and began to load a wounded soldier onto their stretcher. Once loaded they began to work their way to safety. As the scene unfolded before them, the other soldier now boldly answered the honest, but piercing question of his friend, "There is God! There is God!"

When Jesus became a man He came to show us God. He came in the midst of the loneliness and the horror of a world gone mad. Yet in the chaos and confusion Jesus announced that God is here. Where in the world is God? God is here in Christ. Christ has come among us to show us who God is and what God is. Jesus shows us God in a way that we can understand. In a way that renews us. In a way that gives us hope.

Jesus became a man to feel our hurt

In one act of becoming human He identified with our pain. The pain of loneliness, He felt it. The hurt of rejection, He felt it. The sadness of losing a loved one to death, He felt it. The scars of mental or physical abuse, He felt it.

When we suffer pain, we want others to understand. We want others to be like us so they can identify with us. We don't want to be alone. We want others to feel our pain and our hurt. When Jesus became a man He understood us; He identified with us; He felt our pain, and He hurt.

Joseph Damien was a nineteenth-century missionary who ministered to people with leprosy on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. Those suffering grew to love him and revered the sacrificial life he lived out before them.