“
Home For The Holidays” November 21, 2012 A Lincoln Daily News Magazine Copyright 2012
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shed their paper and Scotch-tape skins. Get it?
I love the whole package.
But what I love most is The Story (not the
movie “A Christmas Story,” though I suppose
I love that, too).
I love Christmas because it is The Story, the
true story of how God is so crazy in love with
people that He sends them a very precious Gift.
In fact, He gives us the most extravagant Gift
He could ever give: He comes to humanity as
one of us.
Of course, you know as well as I do what
spoiled children do to their toys -- break them
and toss them aside. Wouldn’t you know that’s
just what we did? We broke God, the precious
Son, with an ugly cross. We spat in the face of
the ultimate Gift of love and scorned the Giver.
But even that couldn’t stop His love. He
proved it by walking away from death itself
and even now patiently waits, hoping we will
receive His Gift and love Him in return.
That’s The Story. That’s what makes
Christmas special, but you’d hardly think so in
such a shallow age.
Today, it’s all about the show. Image is
everything. It’s not the person who counts, just
what he stands for.And that’s what Christmas is
beginning to look a lot like. Words like “peace,”
“‘
love” and “joy” are carelessly tossed around
every year about this time without a thought.
We try to leave out Jesus -- the person, the
Gift, God with us -- and focus on what He
stands for (i.e., “peace on earth” and “good
will toward all men”). We miss the heart of
The Story -- God came to us! God invaded our
broken world and, in an ironic twist that only
God could pull off, He let us break Him so He
could fix what’s wrong with us.
In this day of wars and rumors of war, love
and joy and peace sound so wonderful. We
wish them on each other every December,
but we can’t give them to each other because
we don’t have them to give. God came to us
and brought love and joy and peace with Him.
Before Jesus, this world didn’t have them, and
without Him we never will.
So, speaking as someone who loves
Christmas, I offer you this simple phrase:
Enjoy all the food, folks and fun the season has
to offer. But remember this -- without Jesus
Christ, the rightful King of the world, born to
us so many years ago, there is no real hope for
this hopeless world.
Someone said it so beautifully on the eve
of Election Day: “No matter who is elected
president, Jesus is still the King.”
You don’t have to wait for the eve of
Christmas or the eve of the NewYear or the eve
of your dying day to pledge your allegiance to
Him. Receive the Gift! Merry CHRISTmas!
[
Greg Wooten, Pastor
Lincoln Church of the Nazarene]