At Home with Our Faith

John 3:16-18

Who is God? What is God like? Ever since God first spoke to Abraham and Moses, people had part of the answer to those questions. The Hebrew Scriptures revealed how "other" than us God is. God is Lord of us, and we are not masters even of our own passions. The Psalms tell us that God is "merciful and gracious," and we must admit that we are usually neither. God is "slow to anger, full of love, and faithful." Tune into any family gathering, office conversation, or soap opera to measure human behavior! It's easy to lose faith in people when they have demonstrated how unlike God we can be. God is great, but where does that leave us? That is why the Gospel we see in the New Testament is such good news. God had more to say--and his Word became flesh.

God so loved the world that he sent his only son to change history. Just when it seemed like there was no hope that people could be anything but angry, hateful, war-like, and unfaithful, Jesus came to be one of us. Now God-with-us, Jesus, gives people the power to change, to be kind instead of cruel, generous instead of selfish. The love that the Father has for the Son--the Holy Spirit--is given to us. If God can become a man, men and women can be better than we hoped. Though some people will reject this salvation, Jesus renews our trust in the goodness of humanity. When we see humans acting good and kind and generous, we are seeing Jesus among us.

Be mindful that your kind actions and words are spreading the love of God in the world, which sorely needs it. If not you, then who will do it?