A young businessman had just started his own firm. He had just rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques.  He saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear the hot shot, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working. He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. 

Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I’ve come to activate your phone lines."

Recently I joined the Facebook community.  What an amazing way to keep up with friends around the world.  The Muncherian household is also on Skype which means video calls to the other side of the planet.  Email is so 90’s.

And yet, with all of our means of communication are we really communicating?  We know more things about each other.  But, do we know each other more deeply?  How are we doing at touching each other’s lives at the real core of where we crave relationship?  Is it possible that many people think they are communicating but have lost the true experience of communication?

While attending a marriage seminar on communication, David and his wife listened to the instructor declare, "It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other."

He addressed the men, "Can you describe your wife's favorite flower?"

David leaned over, touched his wife's arm gently and whispered, "Pillsbury All-Purpose, isn't it?"

Communication requires breaking through all of what keeps us from hearing each other on the heart level.  Good communication touches the heart.

God communicates with us because He desires for us to have a relationship with Him (John 17:3; 1 John 5:20).  He’s communicated about Himself in creation and in the part of us that realizes that God exists.  God communicates with us through His word the Bible (Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-16).  God communicates with us through His Son, Jesus Christ (John 1:1-18; 3:16).

There is no greater heart level communication possible than that of God entering humanity in Bethlehem, living among us, dying in our place on the cross, and His resurrection from death.  Every part of our deepest needs have been spoken to in Jesus.  The greatest of which is our need to have a relationship with God.

Celebrating the birth of Jesus is an opportunity to celebrate that we are loved by God, that He offers to us the forgiveness of our sin, and certainty of eternal life with Him.  Celebrating the birth of Jesus is an opportunity to receive His love, to confess our sin, and to give our lives to the relationship He offers us in Jesus Christ.

God’s communication in Jesus is the ultimate example of how we can communicate with each other.  God setting aside His rights as God in order to meet us in our humanity sets the example for our setting aside of our “rights” (what we feel entitled to) in order to connect with others at the heart level.  God living among us shows us the need to walk side-by-side and experience life together.  God dying for us demonstrates the crucial need for sacrifice in our relationships (“Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” - Ephesians 5:25).  Such communication is the foundation of life long fulfilling relationships. 

Facebook can’t even begin to come close to that depth of communication.  May we learn to communicate as God communicates.