You matter to God.

December 1, 2019
Lutheran Hour devotion during Advent

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

Advent for us starts where it always has—with the One who created everything. It starts with God the Father, who made us and loved us—and with God the Son, who came to be our Savior Jesus. And it starts with the Holy Spirit, who gives us faith and life in Jesus.

But it also starts with you in all of your tininess—somebody sitting in a comfortable chair reading in the lamplight; a parent putting the little ones to bed with a prayer and a story about Jesus; a driver with your eyes on the road, watching out for hazards while the back of your mind is preoccupied with work or errands. You are a single speck of human life among billions of others on a troubled planet in an ordinary galaxy of the immense universe. And yet Advent is about you because you are the reason Jesus came.

You matter to Him. God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God—why should He care about you? And yet He does. He has told you so: "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows" (Luke 12:6-8).

So here we are, in Advent—watching and praying and marveling as we see how the great God Himself, the Most High, comes down to us as a tiny baby Himself, dependent on us for nursing and diaper-changing and holding and singing to sleep. And we rejoice because we too depend on Him who grew up and suffered and died and rose again for our sakes. Because He loves us, our tiny lives have become infinitely meaningful. He has made us the adopted children of God Himself.

THE PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for sending Your Son. Thank You that we matter to You. Amen.