It that’s most wonderful time of the year! It’s also a bit confusing.
Christmas is a confusing time in lots of ways. There is a mixture of this and that from here and there, some sacred, some pagan, some good, and some bad. There are lots of things to sort through.
The confusion was really brought home to me several years ago, when I was working with Laotian refugees in Nashville, Tennessee, the boat people. One day, around Christmas, one of the older children, who was learning about Jesus and Santa at the same time, asked this. "Oh Allen, is it right that Santa Claus died on the cross for me?"
I laughed and corrected. What else could I do?
Hebrews 2 gets at one of the real reasons for the Incarnation, which is what we celebrate.
Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
Jesus went all the way to the womb of a peasant girl to identify with us, all of us. That’s Good News! Understood and embraced it frees us from the fear of death and ushers us into new life, eternal life.
Do you believe that?
No comments:
Post a Comment