Season of Preparation Day Twenty: God’s Fullness

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” Colossians 1:19

My first Christmas with my future husband’s family gifted me with an awkward moment that I shall never forget.

What does one say when they unwrap an empty box in front of their future in-laws? Was this some sort of family initiation? Would my reaction set the tone for our new but soon-to-be permanent relationship? These and a million other thoughts filled my head as I studied the empty ornament box in my hand, acutely aware that all eyes were on me, waiting my response.

After a period of awkward silence, my fiancé caught on to the problem. Turns out the giver hadn’t checked the box when they took it from the shelf, brought it home, and wrapped it in pretty paper. Since it was supposed to have contained a small ornament, nothing about the weight of the box triggered concern. An entirely innocent mistake—not a sadistic family initiation ritual—that left us with a humorous memory.

I wonder if those who looked on the infant lying in the humble manger thought “That’s it? This is the Savior spoken of by the prophets? This is the Salvation of all mankind. He’s just a baby?”

If I’m honest, I would have probably been hoping to find something a little bigger.

And yet Scripture tells us the fullness of God was in him.

It reminds me of the oft heard saying used to describe a petite person with a feisty spirit. Dynamite comes in small packages.

And the helpless infant both shepherds and wisemen came to see was about to blow up the world’s way of thinking and doing.

He was—and is—everything.

The fullness of God, everything there is to know about God—his goodness, love, grace, and mercy, his healing, creativity, authority, and righteousness—was present in the newborn Messiah.

Have you ever received an exciting gift but found the words “batteries not included” written on the box? Jesus came with no such limitations. We can forget that while he was fully man—experiencing and feeling everything we experience and feel—he was also fully God.

“And of His fullness we have all received . . .” John 1:16

There is nothing God has withheld from us when we receive the gift of his Son.

There is no gift that man can give that equals the value of God’s gift to us, no gift that can offer us everything we need or satisfy our every longing.

The fullness of God is his gift to us, wrapped in the package of a newborn baby and placed in a manger for all the world that holy night.

This Christmas may I remember that any gift I find beneath the tree is insignificant when compared with the most precious gift of all, Jesus Christ. And in the gift of the Messiah, may I have the wisdom to recognize the fullness of God given to me.