TOGETHER: Find a place for Jesus in your life_122004

Posted: 12/17/04

TOGETHER:
Find a place for Jesus in your life

“The birth of Jesus is the sunrise of the Bible,” Henry Van Dyke said. What a powerful insight. All that came before Jesus was like the reflected light of the moon. God's activity in creation and in the hopes and aspirations of the prophets, though full of beauty, wonder and anticipation, could never match the full glory of the “Light of the world.” The inspired songs of the psalmists and the longings of the prophets looked forward to the Messiah as flowers awaken at dawn and turn toward the rising sun.

Consider how Herod missed the joy of Christmas because his heart was filled with fear and jealousy. He refused to let Jesus bring to him the gift of a new life. With implacable hatred, his sin-soaked mind set in motion a plot to kill the boy babies of Bethlehem. Herod was a corrupt, selfish, evil man. How different his life would have been if he had actually made his way to where the child was, turned his face toward him and worshipped.

Consider how the innkeeper missed out on Christmas because he could think of nothing better to do than send Jesus to the cattle stall. You ask, “What else could he have done?” His inn was full. He could have offered his own room. What gentleman would send an expectant mother to the barn when there was a bed he could have given up?

We fill our lives with excuses as to why Jesus cannot find a place in our lives, and we escape our responsibility to welcome the children into our lives who still have no place to stay this wintry month. Don't blame the innkeeper and don't blame Herod if you quietly stand by while children have no health care, no food and no safe place to sleep. “But that was Jesus,” you say. Yes, it was Jesus, and he is the one who said: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” He also said: “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me” (Matthew 25:40, 45).

Thank God for the old and patient Simeon. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to offer a sacrifice on the occasion of his birth, it was Simeon, a righteous and devout man, who turned his face to Jesus, took the baby in his arms and blessed God: “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).

If you can get your arms around Jesus this Christmas, you can get your arms around your family and your neighbor and those who need you and, even, your enemies.

My dear daughter-in-law, Pam, and her friend, Natalie, sang a Christmas song I had never heard at our church's deacon banquet the other night. Lowell Alexander wrote: “There's a rose in Bethlehem with a beauty quite divine, perfect in this world of sin on this silent holy night. There's a fragrance much like hope that it sends upon the wind, reaching out to every soul from a lowly manger's crib.

“Oh, Rose of Bethlehem, how lovely, pure and sweet, born to glorify the Father, born to wear the thorns for me.

“There's a rose in Bethlehem colored red like mercy's blood. 'Tis the flower of our faith; 'tis the blossom of God's love. Though its bloom is fresh with youth, surely what will be he knows, for a tear of morning dew is rolling down the Rose.”

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas