If God wanted to simply tell us a message of give us an example, he could have sent someone else. The one thing he could do by coming to us, is to be with us in our suffering. In other words, he has compassion on you; he wants to be with you in what we’re going through. Christmas and in fact, the whole of the gospel can be explained in these terms. God comes to be with us.
Compassion is central to how God approaches us – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise (even if they claim to be Christian). The cross tells us that there is no limit to God’s compassion – i.e. he is with us no matter what we’re going through. He never says, “That’s enough! From here on, you’re on your own.”
I look back to the end of 2015, where this became much clearer to me at a men’s retreat. I had moved from India about 1.5 yrs earlier and had become more aware of various anxieties and fears in my heart. Hearing about and experiencing God’s compassion helped me shift in my heart from the unrealistic desire of no longer having any feelings of anxiety and fear to the desire to better accepting & processing these feelings, by sitting together with Jesus in them and experiencing his compassion. It started me on a journey of deeper understanding, healing and freedom. Or in theological terms – salvation.
