John 1:6-8, 24-27 (The Message)
6 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God 7 to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. 8 John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light. …
24 Those sent to question him were from the Pharisee party. 25 Now they had a question of their own: "If you're neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?" 26 John answered, "I only baptize using water. A person you don't recognize has taken his stand in your midst. 27 He comes after me, but he is not in second place to me. I'm not even worthy to hold his coat for him."
“Love came down at Christmas,
love all lovely, love divine;
love was born at Christmas,
star and angles gave the sign.”
And the world did not know him...
And his own people did not recognize him.
And as strange as it sounds. even among us, more often then we would like to think,
he stands as “One whom we do not know.”
He is among us in places we least expect, in people we find it difficult to be civil toward let alone love and in ways we are far from wanting to take as our way on this earth. For His way is the way of love and that is the hardest thing for us to come to in this world. We say we know what love is yet we reject it as the way to run our world.
It is too soft, we say; too sentimental, too easy, too forgiving. It’s a good way to get yourself killed, And of course, that’s exactly what happened to this Baby who commands so must attention at this time of the year.
Without love, as Paul reminds us so emphatically in his hymn to love, no matter what we do or believe, we are nothing!
That’s what makes this season such a powerful time of the year. This is no casual thing we are celebrating. This is the cosmic event of all time!
For Jesus is pure love coming to dwell in a world where hate has its sway and such love is always on the cutting edge of life, going where we do not want to go and asking us to follow in places we would never go alone.
“Love came down at Christmas…
Star and Angles gave the sign.”
Prayer thoughts for the week:
“Lord, help me to keep love at the center of my life, living Christmas every day.
Help me to follow your lead and go where love is needed!”
No comments:
Post a Comment