11th December, 2006
When I switched on my computer this morning, Microsoft Windows flashed the date, implicitly acknowledging that, whatever you may believe about it, the birth of Jesus was so important that it splitted history into two parts. Everything that has ever happened on this planet falls into a category of before Christ or after Christ.
I first got acquainted with Jesus when I was a child, singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Sabbath school, addressing bedtime prayers to “Dear Lord Jesus”, watching Bible teachers move cut-out figures across a flannelgraph board. I even associated Jesus with gold stars for good attendance. I remember especially one image from Sabbath school: Jesus had long, flowing hair, unlike that of any man I knew. His face was thin and handsome, his skin waxen and milky white…
Looking in retrospect on my years at secondary school and university, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. Maybe because I started to have to much to do… Jesus became just a nice painting hanging on the wall… He was actually there, in my school, in my work in my daily life, however not close.
It really gets crazy at this time of the year, and it can get so crazy with all the stuff around Christmas that we forget the heart of Christmas. We can miss the very reason for what we are doing what we are doing. History would have one more hero if it weren’t because he was so busy… The innkeeper missed the whole thing (Luke 2:7). Are we going to commit the same error this Christmas?
Stop for a second and think: What do you know about Jesus? Is he just a hanging painting on your church’s, school’s wall? Are you in so many things that there is no time left to quietly seat at his feet… May this Christmas be a meaningful one. Let him come out of the painting and be real, real in your heart.
When I switched on my computer this morning, Microsoft Windows flashed the date, implicitly acknowledging that, whatever you may believe about it, the birth of Jesus was so important that it splitted history into two parts. Everything that has ever happened on this planet falls into a category of before Christ or after Christ.
I first got acquainted with Jesus when I was a child, singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Sabbath school, addressing bedtime prayers to “Dear Lord Jesus”, watching Bible teachers move cut-out figures across a flannelgraph board. I even associated Jesus with gold stars for good attendance. I remember especially one image from Sabbath school: Jesus had long, flowing hair, unlike that of any man I knew. His face was thin and handsome, his skin waxen and milky white…
Looking in retrospect on my years at secondary school and university, I see that, despite all the devotional intimacies, Jesus grew remote from me there. Maybe because I started to have to much to do… Jesus became just a nice painting hanging on the wall… He was actually there, in my school, in my work in my daily life, however not close.
It really gets crazy at this time of the year, and it can get so crazy with all the stuff around Christmas that we forget the heart of Christmas. We can miss the very reason for what we are doing what we are doing. History would have one more hero if it weren’t because he was so busy… The innkeeper missed the whole thing (Luke 2:7). Are we going to commit the same error this Christmas?
Stop for a second and think: What do you know about Jesus? Is he just a hanging painting on your church’s, school’s wall? Are you in so many things that there is no time left to quietly seat at his feet… May this Christmas be a meaningful one. Let him come out of the painting and be real, real in your heart.
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