Like many of you reading this I ate waaayy too much food, & enjoyed the day with family last week. Then the perennial task of unraveling miles of chords & lights began. This was followed by trying not to release expletives & untangle said lights, and of course, the task of checking & rechecking bulbs. We hung strands of lights, messed up & had to restring the same but got my parents’ home lit.
The next day was like a shampoo direction: “rinse & repeat.” We got all the lights up & blow up yard stuff out & hit the inside setting up & decorating the tree. One more time with the yards of lights, which had to be unstrung when some didn’t work, then restrung with working bulbs. At the end of the day & decorating my wife made a discovery. The Nativity scene was missing a very important detail: Baby Jesus! Honest to Pete (whoever Pete is). Seems one of the kids had gotten baby Jesus out & never put Him back. We had everything lit, decorated to the hilt & no baby Jesus.
The irony didn’t escape me. I’m afraid so many of us fill up our homes & lives with all the pretty stuff & festivity only to forget to invite the main Person to His own birthday party. Had to stop & wonder if I’m busy doing the same thing sometime. Talk about busy at Christmas! As a worship leader I have to begin on Christmas music in summer & hit in earnest in September. Two musicals, multiple get togethers, mission meetings & family later, I’m spent. If not careful I’ll forget to the whole reason & Person I’m celebrating.
"The Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a Child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)"
Isaiah 7:14 NLT
I’m so very thankful that even though we may busy ourselves & lose sight of how important He is, Christ never leaves us or forgets us. One of the greatest promises is His name is Immanuel or “God is with us.”
That means when you get a pink slip at work, or you have more bills than money at the end of the month, He is with you. When you get news you don’t want to hear, He’s with you. When the one you love has broken your heart in pieces, He is with you. When you are at your rope’s end, He is with you. His whole purpose & the very REASON for Christmas is that He became one of us.
I want to encourage you (AND me!) to make sure Jesus isn’t missing this Christmas. Oh by the way, my son took an ornament off the Christmas tree of a gold Baby Jesus for the Nativity. He might not have realized but how appropriate. The King of Glory came down, so what’s more fitting than gold? The first Century had no room for Jesus, but I fully intend to make room for Him in coming weeks!
www.myspace.com/davejacksonnewport. Dave Jackson on facebook
ASUN website www.bcmasunewport.org Cell: 870-217-9376
Dave Jackson-Campus Minister djackson@absc.org
Dave’s Desk - http://bcmasunewport.blogspot.com
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