It's Christmas time! Everywhere you go people are rooting around for gift giving, holiday baking and party planning. I really feel like something is wrong with me this year. My melancholic other side has really kicked in. Normally I am the sanguine, dress me in red and send me off all smiles and laughter...this year is different. Oh, I don't think I am depressed, just rather reflective. This year I am peering hard into the nativity, listening to the various teaching programs present the story of Christ's birth and well, really soaking it in. Can it really be that after 27 years as a believer that it has suddenly hit me...that the baby born in a manger...God's only son...came to die for me and I am just getting it? No, I know these things, however this year it is remarkably different as I just seem to be looking beyond the surface, pondering the very stark reality of this event that we make fuss over year after year.Lately, God has been helping me see just how very teeny tiny I am in light of who He is. I am barely capable of even trying to comprehend this God that I am somehow deeply in love with. Itsy, bitsy me knows that the Maker of heaven and earth loves her, desires her affections, and continually walks with her to bring her His very best, every day. Not only that, the King of the universe, the One who hung the stars in the sky even sings over her when she is sleeping. I can barely contain myself when I think of that!
The very understanding of these verses in John are so remarkable as they reveal Christ Jesus to us from the first five verses in the book of John:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of Men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
These verses are proof that the Majesty came to invade our world of darkness so that we would no longer be in darkness. He came to provide life where there was only death!
When we read the Christmas story and get to the part of shepherds witnessing the revelation of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2, I am in awe!
I listened as the Bible teacher from a program we carry on the radio talked about the fact that these shepherds who received this revelation were really the lower class of society in that day. Dirty, stinky, sweaty and probably pretty course in their language, yet God made them privy to the realization of a story told hundreds of years before. They were some of the first to witness this baby born in a disgusting cave filled with animal refuse and dirt. How can it be? And how can it be that God has allowed one like me or even you, to come to know Himself as Trinity? This amazing event gave us the reality of the Creator Himself! If that doesn't humble you just a bit then pinch yourself to make sure you are really here!
My past has been an ugly stumbling block to receiving God's amazing grace. It has held me captive with unbelief that God could love me because of _________ (you can fill in the blank if you can identify.) Maybe this Christmas of 2011 is a year where after almost 27 years of having known "Christ as my savior", that I am able to freely receive what was given to me over 2000 years ago. Not because of something I have done, but because I now realize that my Creator invaded my messy life and pierced my heart with His love. Like the unlikely shepherds who were given the revelation of Jesus birth, I too am the unlikely to receive this gift of love.
It could be that you have gone through the motions year after year like me without really internalizing the actuality of God becoming flesh, to dwell among us, then to die so that we might live. It is simple yet complex and as one song puts it "what a strange way to save the world"! I have looked at myself as the most unlikely and accepted His love which completely invaded my messy life and this has given me hope for my tomorrows! Peer deeply into the manger scene and ask God to give you His perception of what this "Christmas celebration" is really all about. Then like me you can truly rejoice in the Savior that has come. May His Christmas blessing be yours!
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
3 comments:
jestiI really, really liked what I just read. I think Crazy Love has helped see just what you wrote about. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To me, this Christmas time is probably the first time that I have really taken the time to try and comprehend that God really DOES love me just as I am. Look what he did for me--giving up his only son for me? Wow!! Now THAT'S love!! Merry Christmas!
Very goood Dawn. Christmas is about love and the greatest love is the Savior loving us. We love Him because He first loved us! Thanks for being honest about your revealation concering the meaning of Christmas. I think we all needed a reminder.
Isn't the grace of God amazing that He would give us this reflective time. It is so much better to fill our minds with Him and not what the world throws at us. The battle rages but we have choices to make and Jesus to lead the way.
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