Search the entire world, and you will find no love comparable to the act of the incarnation: God Himself suffering as a man in order to reconcile those who hated him.

And yet, I am often oblivious.

It’s not that I don’t know about God’s love as put on display in the Christmas story, but that I haven’t let the reality of it sink in. Or more often, I’m allowing the busyness of life to keep me from dealing with the nagging questions of doubt: If God is sovereign and he loves me, why hasn’t he fixed this problem in my life? Why is He giving others what I don’t have?

Those questions—questions I am learning to identify as lies—cannot be shoved aside or buried beneath the accumulating pile of life. It takes courage to bare my soul before God, face these questions as the temptations they really are, and then wrestle with God until He enables me to fully rest in both His sovereignty and love, even if circumstances never change.

My encouragement this advent is to come face to face with God—and refuse to let Him go until you’ve come away with a deeper understanding of His love. It is far too easy to be caught up in the busyness, all the while what started as a few nagging questions becomes lies that take over our hearts.

God’s love has been poured out abundantly through His son coming to earth. Not only that, but for those of us who have looked to Christ for salvation, His love has been set specifically on us. Christ’s coming, the baby in the manger whose story surrounds us at Christmas, is proof of that love.