MikePeercy.com

Sometimes you come across something that just surprises you. It’s like going through your grandparents’ pantry and finding a whiskey bottle – which may not be strange for your grandparents but was outrageously funny for mine. It’s like finding a $100 bill in the pocket of a pair of sweat pants or a snickers bar in the vegetable crisper.

I was building a play list for a Christmas party and I had one of those moments. It was one of the most simple and beautiful Christmas songs I have ever heard. And it was recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Really.

It’s a beautifully simple observation of the “why” of Christmas.

I was right, wasn’t I? It is simple and beautiful and draws you into the central fact that indeed love had brought Him here.

The reality is that Jesus came in a dirty, messy place. He came to a stubborn and self-centered people. He came right down into the dirt. And why?

That’s easy. It’s the core of what may very well be the most succinctly complete passage in the entire Bible.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3.16

Love moved God the Father to send His Son. Love is the motivating force for Jesus’ birth and life and death and resurrection. Love is the only hope of life and it only can be found through the Son who came down into the dirt.

God so loved…me. God so loved…you.

He loved us so much that He sent His own Son – all the way down to the nitty gritty dirt.

They were right. Love has brought Him here.