DEUTERONOMY 4

I totally loved this part: "Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other." (vs 32-35)

It seems that god-man relations in the Old Testament followed either one of two scenarios: either men were trying to get the attention of non-existent gods or the true God was trying to get the attention of men. Unfortunately, it didn’t often happen that men were trying to get the attention of the true God. But even if they were so inclined, they probably still wouldn’t have had to work to get the attention of the true God — because He plays offense. Before we go out seeking to get His attention, He’s already been working to get ours.

God is always on the offensive. He doesn’t wait for us to come to Him. He comes to us. That's the whole message of Christmas, isn't it?! When we were not in a position to be at home with Him, Jesus came to be at home with us. He is always taking the initiative in our relationship, always pursuing, always seeking.

This is one of the reasons we can believe that He is — right now — preparing a place for us. Not because He said so (although He did, in John 14), but because He came to us when we had no place prepared for Him. The fact that we didn’t send Him an invitation didn’t matter. He didn’t wait then. He didn’t wait with the Israelites in the Old Testament. And He’s still not waiting. He makes the first move. He comes to us. He always plays offense.