Compassion
Daily Readings
12/20: Matt. 1:18-21
12/21: Luke 1:46-55
12/22: John 3:16
12/23: Luke 2:1-7
12/24: Luke 2:8-14
12/25: Luke 2:15-21
Devotion
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Our Compassionate Father
Here Jesus tells us what brought Christmas about. He also tells us what the purpose was. God saw the brokenness and evil of the world and he had compassion on us. Rather than enacting vengeance or distancing himself, he sent his Son into the world “in order that the world might be saved through him.”
The dictionary defines compassion as the “sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it” God knew that we were going to “perish” and he had the desire to alleviate it. John tells us clearly that this was an expression of his love. The greatest love of all time.
the greatness of his love
We can measure the greatness of his love in two ways - the gift he gave, and who gave it to. The gift he gave was “his only Son.” The infinitely valuable One who is eternally and intimately united with the Father; this One he gave…for us!
That “us” is the other way to measure his love because we are the “world” Jesus mentions. In John’s gospel the “world” means the collective group of sinful rebels against God’s authority. He’s not referring to amount of people here as much as he is referring to the type of people - people who are condemned and perishing because of the evil in our hearts.
This is what B.B. Warfield called “the marvel above all other marvels…the marvel of God’s love for sinners.” In God’s compassionate heart, “mercy triumphs over judgment” (james 2:13) to the point that he is willing to send his own Son in order to make a way for us to live eternally with him.
Our calling
In light of this extraordinary love we are invited to “believe in him.” But it would be utterly incongruent to believe in this great compassion of the Father without it forming our own hearts in kind. As we follow our compassionate God, may we grow in compassion.
Reflective questions
How can I grow in compassion?
Am I aware of the suffering and distress around me? Am I moved to do something about it?
Am I humbled by God’s great love for me? Am I willing to love my enemies like he did?
Family Activity
Supplies: COOKIES/CAN GOODS/SOCKS/HATS/GLOVES
Compassion is noticing how someone is feelings and then wanting to take action to relieve their pain or suffering. Choose one of these activities to help your children understand how they can help someone in need. (make sure you attach a card with the above scripture-Bonus let the kids make the card!)
Make cookies and deliver to nursing home-Help kids to understand that during this time of Covid and quarantine many people that live in nursing homes are not able to get visitors and that can be very lonely.
Buy socks/hats/gloves-any of these or all of these and donate for the homeless, drop them off at Bethel.
Buy and deliver to the blessing box can goods for people who do not have enough to eat. Let the children pick out some of their favorite foods to donate.