By Pastor Ryan Stockstrom

Harvest Fellowship Church

We’ve all met people before that are so memorable that when other people ask about them, we simply say, when you meet him, you’ll know!

Some people are quite magnetic that way. There’s something about them that you just can’t forget. Maybe it’s their laugh. Maybe it’s the way they make you feel when you’re around them.  It could be the way they carry themselves. Whatever it is; they’ve got an attribute that’s so identifiable, well, you’ll know who it is when you meet them.

And that’s exactly what the apostle John wrote about when he said, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8.  Notice John doesn’t say God “has” love, or “knows how to love.” He says God IS LOVE. To know God, is to know love. So John is saying, if you have no love, well, you’ve never truly met God. Because once you do, you’ll know love.  

What is this love that God offers? Well it’s manifested in so many ways. It can be something we sense and feel as we focus on Him in worship.  It can be truly understanding the power of forgiveness that He gives us in Christ. It can be in receiving one of a million different gifts he has given us as a human race; from life to nature to sunrises. And of course, it can be seen, felt, and known in the truths of Christmas.   

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. This is the truth of Christmas. This is the God of Christmas. Merry Christmas!