When God Breathes . . .

I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. Ezekiel 37:5

God created life with His breath. He breathed His clean, pure, empowering breath and shaped lifeless clay into a breathing, thinking human being. It was this same breath that pumped tiny lungs and opened Jesus' nostrils to utter his first cry into this world. Our Creator God reversed the earth-to-heaven journey we will make after death and sent Jesus from Heaven to earth all in a breath.  It was one powerful, energizing, life-giving breath of God.

We rehearse this miracle every Christmas. Jesus made a longer journey than from an umbilical lifeline to oxygenated air. Jesus came all the way from God’s own heart.

But there is another miracle just as astounding. It is when the Son of God makes the journey again from Heaven to earth to inhabit a human heart. Why do we not recognize the majesty and miracle of such indwelling? It is Christmas birth in every way.  Emmanuel comes to live in our skin, share peace through our words, and impart hope with our mercy and acceptance.

If God can make his way into a womb, He can make His way into a heart, can’t He?

However, if our heart is closed, if self-centeredness rules, if control is more important than surrender, no matter how hard God breathes, He must wait for an opening. 

The biggest question that hangs in the air this Christmas is not whether we can get everything done, but whether we let God breathe His Spirit of Heaven-sent hope, peace, joy, and love. 

 Christmas is so close, just a breath away. Don’t let anything steal God’s breath of true life from your Christmas celebration. Recognize the miracle of Jesus’ birth on earth, but remember that God shared Jesus to bring the breath of true life to us. We can live in the image and respiration of God.

So breathe, child of scatterdness and pain. But let it be God’s breath that brings your peace. Breathe His love and hope.  The world will take our breath away.  But God is always breathing new life.  Let Him breathe that life in you this Christmas.