God's Love Language

In the Nicene Creed, there is a doctrinal statement that communicates God’s love language at Christmas: The Son of God became man. St. John the evangelist points to the essential truth of this: The Word became flesh. And the day that one comes to truly believe in who Jesus is, is far and away one of the most important days of his or her life. It’s then that one realizes the Word became flesh means that God became man in order to heal them from everything that separates them from God.

In his best selling book, The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman lists: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Gifts, and Touch as dominant themes of love. My first language of love is gift giving. Christmas time at our home always involved a well decorated Christmas tree with beautifully wrapped presents under it. My wife and children eagerly spent weeks guessing and awaiting Christmas Eve to open one present, and then slowly unwrapping all the rest on Christmas Day.

We are told that God’s language of love is perfect, so it’s not hard for us to see all five languages of love displayed throughout the Bible. God’s language of love ultimately meets everything required to achieve the greatest good. But, I would venture to say, on the holy night, when Jesus was born/God became man, that language of love speaks volumes about gift giving. To the point that God wanted to make Himself a gift to all humanity. And in His taking on our humanity, He created the way to one day give us His divinity.

The Incarnation is all about Perfect Love giving us the gift of the answer to two of the most daunting questions resting in the human heart: Who am I and why am I here? It is in the Son of God became man that these questions are answered.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to give gifts to those we love. It is Godlike to want to give to those who are loved. But it’s Christmas wise to recognize that some gifts are made of better stuff. The celebration of Christmas reaches the wisdom state when we do not distance ourselves from the truth that God came in the person of His Son when the Word became flesh. And God continues to offer us His Son, to be taken into our daily life. He is taken into our life when we daily seek a way to be close to him and to ever strive to walk with him.

If one doesn’t live knowing in their heart of hearts that God came to save them and is here with them sharing in their struggle, why celebrate the meaning of Christmas. And if the central character and the meaning of life has no relevance, there is no need to glorify the fulfillment of God’s promise, happy holidays will become its own language of love.