How many days until Christmas?
5..Crazy..!! Then a whole new Year...!
Life just keeps on happening..doesn't it..?!!!
Even more amazing is the time I spend in a year..and what little I remember!
I can tell you my kids birthdays, a few small events..but good ol' Facebook reminds me of things I've long forgot. Even just a few days ago!!
Which is why the story of Christ's birth is really interesting.
How many things can you recite have happened 2,000 years ago?
How can a story be so strong and so real every single Christmas?
Every year, we hear the story of Christ's birth and how God did something that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. He clothed himself in humanity, a vulnerable baby..at that, for the sole purpose of dying on a cross.
God wanted to show people that he was willing to understand our point of view. Like a parent, who wants their kids to understand that he does love them..and that he is not the angry rule-driven God who requires you to go through hoops of religion to understand his love for us.
It's the one thing that pushed the Religious rulers overboard..the last straw was broken when Jesus stormed through the synagogue that people were actually selling religious artifacts that became the only way people could be cleansed and know God.
There was no personal relationship..it was turned into a business.
Jesus came to tell people that you don't have to do the hokey-pokey and turn yourself around..the rules are not the most important part..you just come as you are.
And then he gave his life..because when you love someone..it takes a sacrifice.
Any mom knows this full well.
Children take our time, money, sweat and tears..sometimes our sanity..lol!
This Christ came to give..so that we could know his love for us.
Strange..but now it's personal..and relatable.
I heard a missionary tell of a story of how they played "The Passion of the Christ" in a third-world country.
The response was overwhelming..and someone cried out "Finally, someone understands our pain..!"
This is now a relatable God, who experiences how painful the laws of religion can make someone feel small and isolated and alone..and then understand how it feels to feel rejected and alone. Especially at Christmas time.
I have some friends that want to go home to a family they miss, or their family comes to visit them...bearing the cost and time of travel..because they miss their family! Man..what I would do for a family that actually wanted to see me?! That wanted to talk to me, spend time with me, go visit local shops together, the stuff you see people do..I want that!
I hope above all else that our kids actually want to come home, someday. That they feel their most encouraged at home and feel our love. That they can feel welcome.
I love how everything is personal with this Jesus..this Christ..this Messiah.
Everything that we go through has a purpose..even the pain we walk through.
So..this Christmas, I hope you know you have a God who sees you...who can handle you beating him on the chest like an angry child who needs to understand, when life's out of control and it's overwhelming you at every angle. He may not take away any of it..but, the strength to endure it will come.
He is called the "author of our life"..the one that came to deepen and define our story..not to make us like any other. Not to take us and make nothing out of us. But by his own words that say "follow me and I will make you..".
May Christmas find you wanting more of him. May you weed out the non-understanding and ill-compassionate given Christians that have failed to see your pain and maybe have ruined your relationship with him and may you work on believing and trusting what he says about you. (And trust that not all of us want to beat you with the legal stick..some just want to hear your story..and we need to hear it..!)
Jesus has more compassion than you'll ever experience in any human. He is the most understanding and has a track record of seeking out the lost and the broken..because he never sat with the upright and society..he lived among the broken..and always had compassion and understanding.
And he doesn't even want you to be clean before he washes your feet.
No..because that's just it..you can't do it yourself. You can't earn your way into his eyes. you just come..lower your pride and walk in his arms.
Follow him..and let him do the work..
Then...reach back and take your hand and help another..encourage someone..deeply love someone..and tell your story..because you have one..and your strength lies in it!!
I'm learning this..so if you need someone to learn with..I'm here!
Merry Christmas and if I don't talk to you in a while..Happy New Year!!!!
5..Crazy..!! Then a whole new Year...!
Life just keeps on happening..doesn't it..?!!!
Even more amazing is the time I spend in a year..and what little I remember!
I can tell you my kids birthdays, a few small events..but good ol' Facebook reminds me of things I've long forgot. Even just a few days ago!!
Which is why the story of Christ's birth is really interesting.
How many things can you recite have happened 2,000 years ago?
How can a story be so strong and so real every single Christmas?
Every year, we hear the story of Christ's birth and how God did something that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. He clothed himself in humanity, a vulnerable baby..at that, for the sole purpose of dying on a cross.
God wanted to show people that he was willing to understand our point of view. Like a parent, who wants their kids to understand that he does love them..and that he is not the angry rule-driven God who requires you to go through hoops of religion to understand his love for us.
It's the one thing that pushed the Religious rulers overboard..the last straw was broken when Jesus stormed through the synagogue that people were actually selling religious artifacts that became the only way people could be cleansed and know God.
There was no personal relationship..it was turned into a business.
Jesus came to tell people that you don't have to do the hokey-pokey and turn yourself around..the rules are not the most important part..you just come as you are.
And then he gave his life..because when you love someone..it takes a sacrifice.
Any mom knows this full well.
Children take our time, money, sweat and tears..sometimes our sanity..lol!
This Christ came to give..so that we could know his love for us.
Strange..but now it's personal..and relatable.
I heard a missionary tell of a story of how they played "The Passion of the Christ" in a third-world country.
The response was overwhelming..and someone cried out "Finally, someone understands our pain..!"
This is now a relatable God, who experiences how painful the laws of religion can make someone feel small and isolated and alone..and then understand how it feels to feel rejected and alone. Especially at Christmas time.
I have some friends that want to go home to a family they miss, or their family comes to visit them...bearing the cost and time of travel..because they miss their family! Man..what I would do for a family that actually wanted to see me?! That wanted to talk to me, spend time with me, go visit local shops together, the stuff you see people do..I want that!
I hope above all else that our kids actually want to come home, someday. That they feel their most encouraged at home and feel our love. That they can feel welcome.
I love how everything is personal with this Jesus..this Christ..this Messiah.
Everything that we go through has a purpose..even the pain we walk through.
So..this Christmas, I hope you know you have a God who sees you...who can handle you beating him on the chest like an angry child who needs to understand, when life's out of control and it's overwhelming you at every angle. He may not take away any of it..but, the strength to endure it will come.
He is called the "author of our life"..the one that came to deepen and define our story..not to make us like any other. Not to take us and make nothing out of us. But by his own words that say "follow me and I will make you..".
May Christmas find you wanting more of him. May you weed out the non-understanding and ill-compassionate given Christians that have failed to see your pain and maybe have ruined your relationship with him and may you work on believing and trusting what he says about you. (And trust that not all of us want to beat you with the legal stick..some just want to hear your story..and we need to hear it..!)
Jesus has more compassion than you'll ever experience in any human. He is the most understanding and has a track record of seeking out the lost and the broken..because he never sat with the upright and society..he lived among the broken..and always had compassion and understanding.
And he doesn't even want you to be clean before he washes your feet.
No..because that's just it..you can't do it yourself. You can't earn your way into his eyes. you just come..lower your pride and walk in his arms.
Follow him..and let him do the work..
Then...reach back and take your hand and help another..encourage someone..deeply love someone..and tell your story..because you have one..and your strength lies in it!!
I'm learning this..so if you need someone to learn with..I'm here!
Merry Christmas and if I don't talk to you in a while..Happy New Year!!!!
Comments
Post a Comment