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Por fin lleg\u00f3 el sue\u00f1o. All\u00ed, sobre la paja, en los lugares m\u00e1s inveros\u00edmiles, Mar\u00eda no pudo resistir m\u00e1s.<\/strong> El agotamiento conquist\u00f3 su joven figura y sucumbi\u00f3 a un sue\u00f1o profundo y pesado: su cuerpo se recuperaba del trauma de dar a luz la vida. Su llanto finalmente la despert\u00f3 y sus pesados p\u00e1rpados se abrieron de golpe. El amanecer a\u00fan estaba lejano, pero su hambre no pod\u00eda esperar. Aspir\u00f3 el aire fr\u00edo de la noche mientras su mente se despejaba. Todo lo que hab\u00eda sucedido regres\u00f3 a raudales. Ella se sent\u00f3 y lo vio all\u00ed, en el pesebre. Mientras ella se hab\u00eda perdido en un sue\u00f1o inconsciente, \u00c9l hab\u00eda estado all\u00ed, justo donde ella lo dej\u00f3. Su peque\u00f1o pecho sub\u00eda y bajaba bajo los pa\u00f1ales. La urgencia de sus gritos se aceler\u00f3, pero Mar\u00eda exhal\u00f3 un suspiro de alivio. \u00c9l estaba bien. De hecho, estaba m\u00e1s que bien. Estaba en casa. Jes\u00fas se estaba quedando. Por primera vez desde el principio, Dios se quedaba.<\/em><\/p>\n He had eaten with Abraham, He had appeared to Isaac and Jacob, and He had hosted a feast for Moses and the elders of Israel on top of Mount Sinai. As grand and terrifying as these encounters were, they were always fleeting. The majesty of these events was momentary \u2014 brief. Consider this dramatic account of what happened after the angel of the LORD had visited Manoah and his wife to instruct them concerning Samson\u2019s birth:<\/p>\n “Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, \u201cPlease let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.\u201d The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, \u201cThough you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.\u201d For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD. Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, \u201cWhat is your name, so that when your words come to pass, we may honor you?\u201d But the angel of the LORD said to him, \u201cWhy do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?\u201d So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD, and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. Now the angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD. So Manoah said to his wife, \u201cWe will surely die, for we have seen God.\u201d Judges 13:15-22<\/strong><\/p>\n And that about summed it up. These visits, called theophanies, were like flashes of lightning, brilliant, and then gone like smoke rising to the heavens. Yet with Jesus, it was different.<\/em> He was like the sun \u2014 warm, steady, and constant \u2014 the light of the world (John 8:12).<\/p>\n When God became a man, wasn\u2019t just a cameo appearance for nostalgic Christmas pageants to tug our heartstrings.<\/p>\n He joined this tragic drama called the human story and became its chief player \u2014 turning the plotline inside out. He was there in the City of David (Jerusalem) after the angels had departed and returned to their heavenly abode. Their great Captain remained. Jesus was there in Bethlehem after the shepherds resumed the care of their flocks, His two new parents searching for more permanent housing in a place that was not home. We know nothing of His life until the eighth day when He was circumcised and formally named. God had come, and He was being carried about by two sleep-deprived parents as they wandered through those ancient, narrow streets desperate for someone to show them a bit of hospitality.<\/p>\n \u00bfQu\u00e9 hay de los miles de d\u00edas de la vida de Jes\u00fas en los que no se registra nada en absoluto para nosotros? Un velo de oscuridad los esconde de nuestra mirada, pero seguro que \u00c9l estaba all\u00ed. Dios con nosotros. Estaba all\u00ed en las ma\u00f1anas nubladas y en las tardes sofocantes. All\u00ed estuvo en el taller donde aprendi\u00f3 la carpinter\u00eda de su padre. Estaba en la sinagoga cuando era ni\u00f1o, junto a los otros ni\u00f1os de su edad. Jes\u00fas estuvo presente en los funerales y bodas de los aldeanos que habitaban esas casas anodinas en la tranquila ciudad de Nazaret. Dios descendi\u00f3 a lo com\u00fan. Se sumergi\u00f3 en lo ordinario. Camin\u00f3 junto a la humanidad en todo su quebrantamiento y devastaci\u00f3n. \u00c9l sufri\u00f3 con nosotros.<\/p>\n Jesus was our neighbor and our friend. He was the one who sold us tables and then sat beside us at the well. Of course, we are all painfully aware that Jesus is not here right now. He is no longer with us. Jesus offered a timeless, authoritative statement of what God is really like and how He desires to relate to men and women throughout all the ages. While Jesus is not physically present with us right now, He can make His dwelling in our hearts through His Spirit so that we can still walk in close relationship with Him.<\/p>\n Perhaps you are reading these words, and yet you have never actually decided to trust in Jesus for your salvation and be His friend. Perhaps you have spent many Christmas seasons in church but realize that your heart has grown distant from the Lord. No matter where we have come from, advent is a time for us all to draw closer to the fire.<\/strong> It is a time to give our attention to the glory and the mystery of what began in a manger and will end with God coming and making His home among us again, forever.<\/p>\n Search the Bible today. You can read the story of Jesus for yourself. Go to the pages of the Gospel of John. Jesus\u2019 heart beats for us in every word written.<\/strong> His story is your story, and He invites you to come to Him today. He will be God with you.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dios hab\u00eda venido muchas veces antes.<\/h2>\n
The incarnation…<\/h2>\n
Advent. Coming.<\/h2>\n
It is a time not only to remember that luminous hour of His arrival but also to drink deeply of the truth that Jesus came and dwelt among us. He stayed with us.<\/h3>\n