“The one who is high and lifted up, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I live on high, in holiness, and also with the crushed and the lowly, reviving the spirit of the lowly, reviving the heart of those who have been crushed” (‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭57‬:‭15‬ ‭CEB‬‬).

As a child, without question, my favorite grownups were the ones that spent time on the ground. Some played with toys. Some wrestled. All of them stooped to my level and looked me in the eyes like I was important enough to be seen up close.

Many of them were quite tall, the type of grownups that came to the rescue when your paper airplane got stuck atop a Christmas tree. Others were rather fast, the type of grownups that rushed to your side with a bandage and a hug when you scraped your knee.

I don’t think we ever age out of needing bigger people’s time and attention, especially to the extent we’ve been knocked down and scraped up in life. To that end, Jesus began saving us the moment he descended from on high, taking the form of a baby here on earth. Our Messiah was not content to orchestrate our redemption from a distance—he wanted to look us in the eyes and heal us up close.

Lord God, thank you for your son, Jesus, who befriends us in his humanity and rescues us in his divinity. Amen.