This Christmas has been a strange one for me because throughout it, I’ve felt pretty far from God. In a time where the focus is on getting through exams, Christmas activities, and celebrating the birth of Jesus, I haven’t prioritized my relationship with God and have felt pretty distant from God.
As I try to get back to spending more time with God, one of the Bible passages that’s been speaking to me is Exodus 33:12-17:
Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
I was struck by how Moses knew that God’s presence set Israel apart from the rest of the world and actively pursued it. Israel could just have been another tribe of people trying to survive in the world, but what made them different was God’s guidance and presence in them.
Even today, His presence in us makes us different from the rest of the world and hopefully allows others to experience and encounter Him in us.
As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us remember to draw close to God as He drew near to us throughout the ages and in the birth of Jesus. May we continue to seek out His way and His presence, and may God be with us in this Christmas season and forevermore.