Transitions hold complexities that we often fail to have words for. All at the same time we might hold anxiety and excitement, grief and gratitude, or dread and delight – together. This is a mighty truth that has taken me a better part of fifty years to grasp. And I believe that as I moved through 2025 exploring what it looks like to embrace God and so many other things, I took great steps toward embracing this reality of ‘both-and’.
The simplest yet most profound word that God spoke over me and my angst this past year was “embrace this.” In a moment, I realized how often I resist rather than receive. My mind shifts into overdrive. My thoughts swirl as I analyze situations and people. And doubts too often win out.
Let me just say that such worry, such doubt steals joy like little else in this life. And that’s just not how I want to live. It’s certainly not what God created us for.
So. As we transition from one year to the next, let’s carry with us all we learned in the past twelve months and allow those lessons to shape us, to prepare us for all that the new year will hold. Let’s take hold of the fact that the future always holds unknowns – while at the same time, trust the reality that our God never changes. Every promise He’s ever made He has kept, is keeping, and will keep.
We’ve just moved through Advent – a season of waiting, preparing, and anticipating. If we carry all that we were shown, all that we wrestled with and embraced, we can enter these next days and months secure in our faith, assured that our good, kind God continues to journey with us.
Lessons of Advent
Of all the hints and clues God dropped over multiple centuries about what Messiah would look like, how He would come, and what He would do, there’s one single line tucked into all the lines of prophecy that mentions a virgin giving birth to Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). One verse amidst 31,102 verses. One prophetic promise among hundreds about God becoming human. God with us.
Yet that promise held true. In God’s perfect timing and way, the hidden and seemingly impossible came to fruition in the baby born in Bethlehem.
In the man Jesus, God was displayed to all the earth.
In a human frame, Jesus embodied the love God has for all His creation, for all people.
The holy Son of God left heaven for us – to live among us and to die for us.
Jesus descended to earth, becoming living proof of God’s love for the world (John 3:16). There are no exceptions to this love. Not one. God loves each and every one of us. And such love desires that all would be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) – that all would embrace Him, His Son, and the love they have for all. of. us.
Once we believe that we are embraced by such holy love, we can more fully embrace our Savior. We can more wholly receive all of Him.
Our Savior is many things, and one of them is our living example of paradox; He is both-and. Both human and divine. Like no one ever, the man Jesus defied math and physics by embodying all we know about our own humanity – minus the sin – and all we don’t fully understand about God. Fully human. Fully divine. All at the same time.
Human
All we know about being human can be summed up in one word, complex. Our dreams and disappointments. Our wonder and our wounds. Our propensity for selfishness and our ability to rise above it selflessly. Our temptations and triggers. Our fears and flaws. Our faith and hope.
Being human is hard for all these reasons but especially so because at our core we are simply and wholly needy — and our broken desire for total self-sufficiency resists this reality. We need sleep and food. We need restrooms and clothing. We need water and warmth. We need to be loved and to belong.
We need God.
Somehow, in the wildest, most wondrous way of God, He descends to Earth in this form. Skin and hair. Hunger and thirst. Emotions and thoughts. Jesus was all of this for thirty-three years while never once giving-in to temptations or selfish ambition. His humanity and divinity found a way to live simultaneously in one, heart-beating body.
Jesus felt every pain we do. He knew the love of a mom and a dad — and the discouragement of siblings who didn’t understand. He knew the fellowship of friendship — as well as tauntings and betrayal. He knew the joy of laughter and celebration — and the weakness of grief and suffering.
But more than anything, Jesus knew His Father. Not simply as an idea but as the One He sought and pursued more than any other. In His humanness, Jesus put effort into keeping that connection with His Father strong through time and conversations with Him. As a result, He knew His Father’s heart and chose over and over to remain true to all the plans of the Father — even when they were fraught with pain (John 5:30, 6:38; Luke 22:41-44).
Such knowing resulted in a bond of oneness that melded Jesus with His heavenly Father (John 17:22-23). One in heart and mind. One in mission and vision. Even though the enemy did everything he could to sever this tie, Jesus never succumbed.
Through His humanity, Jesus becomes the Way for us to live this life with God and for God. He shows us how to lay down our selfish pursuits for the pursuit of our Father. And through Christ we are shown that oneness with our Father is not only possible but prayed for and desired. In fact, such oneness – with the Father and with other believers – is the means God has chosen to reveal to the world that He did, indeed, send Jesus to them (John 17:20-21).
Holy
The paradox of living fully human and fully divine baffles us at best. It confuses us. And perhaps even disturbs us. And so we should enter into these questions more deeply rather than resisting them. How is it that Jesus could be wholly human and perfectly holy as He lived among us?
Somehow in the ways that are beyond us but possible for our Father, Jesus was able to live in this world as a man who was also God. It’s the only explanation for His ability to resist all temptation and sin. It’s the only way to understand all that He demonstrated – healing the lame and blind, raising the dead, forgiving sins (Matthew 9). It’s the only way He could fulfill everything needed to bridge the gap between the brokenness of all who inhabit the earth and His holy Father.
I’m coming to understand that while Scripture tells us that the incarnate Christ “emptied Himself,” it was not an emptying of His divine nature:
“…Christ Jesus…
Philippians 2:5-8 NET
who though he existed in the form of God
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself
by taking on the form of a slave,
by looking like other men,
and by sharing in human nature.
He humbled himself,
by becoming obedient to the point of death
—even death on a cross!”
It’s always a good practice to allow Scripture to explain Scripture, and so we turn to another letter Paul wrote where he insists that in Jesus “all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). If Jesus lived on earth fully divine, then what was it He emptied Himself of? John Piper helps us understand that very likely it was the fullness of glory that Jesus emptied Himself of (see John 17:5).1 Consider it – if Jesus had walked the earth in the full, heavenly glory of God, no one could have stood in His presence. “The fullness of divine glory would have incinerated sinners and blinded everyone.”1
When we consider all that Jesus knew without having to be told – that omniscient way of God – we recognize that He walked among us as God. In human skin.
When we consider that Jesus grew as a boy would and learned as He matured (Luke 2:52), we see that He walked among us fully human. Yet fully divine.
In our world where numbers always, always add up (two plus two always equals four), this idea of Jesus being fully man and fully God doesn’t fit the formula. So we wiggle. We wonder. We might even waiver.
Yet it is in our questioning that Jesus desires to meet us. He knows we have belief yet require help in our unbelief (Mark 9:24). He knows our longing to love Him more while, at the same time, getting hung up on the details – just as His disciple, Thomas, once did. And just as Jesus did not turn away from Thomas’s doubt, He will not turn from us. Rather, He will move toward us and invite us to examine and explore Him and His ways and words from every vantage point until we, like Thomas, can lay aside all confusion and skepticism – and embrace Him as our Lord and God (John 20:26-28).
There is much for us to grapple with and grasp as we pursue our Savior, who walked this earth as both human and holy. So it is with this very heart for exploring and examining that I invite you to join me in a search through Scripture for all we can learn and know and embrace about the most important aspect of our God – His divinity. His holiness. We get glimpses of what ‘holy’ must mean as we look at the incarnate Christ, yet I’d love for us to dig more deeply this year in order to uncover all that we are able in our limited human capacities to better understand holy.
I pray that no matter where this finds you, no matter what your posture may be as we enter another new year, that the hope of walking each day with our Lord carries you with a peace that trusts God is with you – all the time, in every way. And He will always, always love you.
Here’s to a year of HOLY.*
Father God, thank You for your constant presence and love for us. We choose to remain firm in our faith that You are always with us and will never forsake us. We confess that the fear of our unknown future looms a bit large before us as we begin another new year, so we look to You. We offer to You our hearts and minds, our bodies and plans. We ask that your Spirit would fill us with your wisdom and Word, guiding us even as He prays for us. We ask that your Son would be our hope and joy even as He provides for and protects us. May His holiness do a work of transformation not only in our minds but in our hearts and spirits. May we know Him better by understanding His holiness, and may that knowing increase our faith and hope in Him. In His holy name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Isaiah 41:10; Romans 12:1; Colossians 3:1-2; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13; Romans 8:26-27; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; Philippians 4:19; Hebrews 7:26)
*This particular post is a stand-alone transition piece that connects where we’ve been in 2025 to where I imagine we’re headed in 2026 – at least in this space. If you’re new to this blog, I post here every Sunday and tend to follow a particular theme throughout the year. I have a lot of fun imagining with God how the year might go as I develop a loose outline of all the ways we might explore a word/theme across twelve months, but I have learned over the years to hold this plan loosely so that Holy Spirit has room to lead us in unexpected ways. This year, as you surmised, my word of the year is holy. While I cannot fully fathom what God has waiting for us in our deep dives each week, I can already feel a bubbling excitement about unpacking more of what holy means and how it amplifies what we know about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Trinity or even Holy-days. I would be so honored to have you join me and ask that you might invite someone to come along with us. Happy New Year – may it be soaked in the holy love of God!
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – John Piper’s article/podcast episode, “Did Jesus Diminish His Divine Power to Become Human?”, is a great read/listen if you’d like to go more in depth on the subject.
- Happy 2026!! If you know me at all, you are already aware how much music means to me — so with each blog series, I curate a Spotify playlist with songs whose lyrics are not only full of our theme but also packed with Scripture. And I always extend these playlists to you! Though we have not yet begun our winter series, I have begun the playlist for Holy is…. The blog itself will be a six-week series that immerses us in the ideas and images of what ‘holy’ is — and that’s what I am listening for in the music. And while the series and the playlist are works in progress, the songs hold much goodness and truth even before we begin to explore the depths of God’s holiness.
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike.
- As we embark on this exploration of ‘holy’, I thought it would behoove us (LOL) to ponder a bit with ourselves and the Lord about what we currently understand ‘holy’ to mean. This is not a pop quiz! This is a chance to dig within ourselves for our thoughts, beliefs, questions, and ideas of ‘holy’ before I say anything, even before we explore Scripture for what it shows us.
- So, I invite you to pause right now and reflect on the world ‘holy’. It’s a good time of year to document where we are, so let’s do so with our thoughts on this special word — that way as we move through the year, we will be able to return to this writing, this documentation to see how much we’ve grown in our understanding of ‘holy’.
- We’re all called to share the truth about who Jesus is. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. May we use our whole selves to tell others about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Ingmar on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
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