You Came to This?
Warmly clad in the sweatshirt I gave to my mom for Christmas, I stood in the rain outside tonight. The day has been warmly festive, full of love and laughter, but outside it has been wet and dismal. Here I thought I'd leave the rain in Portland and enjoy the California sunshine! It's a gray, wet 25th of December, and this was the second time in the day I'd stood outside to just listen to/enjoy the falling drops.
The question was suddenly vivid: You left heaven for this?
There's no way around it. Christmas is not about family and love and warmth and laughter. Those are beautiful things and I am deeply thankful for those aspects of my life. But they are not the reason I celebrate today. It's not about the grandparents I love and the aunts and uncles I rarely get to see. Family is GREAT - mine especially. But Christmas is entirely, undeniably about Jesus.
He left heaven for THIS dismal, dilapidated earth. In big words, it's called the incarnation. In my words, it's called hope. Jesus is the greatest display of the love of God Almighty. God's love is not a vague, impersonal thing that can be seen in every human being or sought within oneself. The love of God is specific, real, deep, and very, very personal. It's personal because it's shown most explicitly in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is not a good teacher or prophet. I mean, yes, he was. But that's not what he was all about. He was all about the redemption of me, a blatantly defiant sinner. His message isn't a fuzzy feel-good one about loving your neighbor. YES, he spoke of loving one's neighbor... but Jesus' message in its majority and at its core is about his identity as the Savior. The one who reconciles us, in all our imperfection, to God, in all his perfection.
THAT is why I celebrate today. And really, that's why I celebrate - ever. I have hope, I have life, I am never alone.
Merry Christmas.
posted by Missy @ 7:43 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Now that the presents are all unwrapped and the cookies are all snug in our tummies, Christmas is over. There it was and there it went. The built up anticipation has lead to this--the morning after. Thank God that isn't what Christmas is about.
What a breath of fresh air! Even living in a heavily Roman Catholic country, it seems people have missed the concept of the Christmas story. Here, Jesus is a baby all the time. They call Him "Bambin" as though He's some helpless token of the holiness of the virgin Mary. People seem to forget that the majestic and powerful Creator of the universe left the throne room of the highest heaven to be our mighty Lord and Saviour. They seem to miss the fact that He chose to come into this world as we all do (and into a feeding trough at that) simply because He loves us and wants to be familiar with all our weakness and pain, not because he was helpless. Man! What love would it take to draw you out of eternal luxury into a cold, wet, dirty night in a stable?
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