At Christmas God turned His heart inside out to give us Jesus. He sent Himself, all love and all God. He came as a baby: God wrapped in flesh; God crying in a manger.
That's an interesting picture isn't it? God in a manger, crying. Why is it that we want to take the baby out of the manger and give him a decent bed, but we find all kinds of reasons to ignore the same God when He cries for us? He cries for our unnecessary complications. He cries for our woundedness. He cries for all the unmet needs He could meet, Too often, we accuse Him of not doing enough when what we really complain about is that He didn't do what we wanted.
But God did not love the world so much that He gave us what we expected. He loved us so much that He gave us what we needed: He gave us Jesus: His exclamation point about humanity, His light for our darkness, His peace for our upheaval, His rescue for our self-will.
Jesus is God's heart turned inside out for us.
Take another look in the manger and this time look all the way into God's heart.