So This is Christmas?

Again, just like the many previous years that have come and gone before, it is holiday season. From Thanksgiving through Black Friday, to Christmas and the expectations and hope of New Years, the season is chalked full of invites, parties, shopping, chatting, church going, seasonal fare, and even some family time.

Yet as this season saunters on to the next I wanted to take a moment to perhaps get some perspective, to see passed the sprinkling lights and 24-hour caroling on the radio, through the sales extravaganzas and the bell-ringing soldiers standing post outside the grocery, and take a much needed break from all the glitz and noise.

The point is this: do not lose sight of eternity amongst all this corporeal frivolity, do not be wholly distracted by the neon glam of consumerism.  In the quest to find the "right gift" do not be so taken away from the true joys and real pleasures of Scripture and of prayer and of worship.  To be sure, this is not intended as any sort of indictment but is purposed as a reminder to keep the focus fixed on He who is, and to be pleased, ultimately, with Him and no thing else.

For there is no substitute for a relationship with God through the broken body and shed blood of Christ Jesus.  There is no value of trinket that is worth more than knowing the Lord Almighty and having Him know us.  In the end, there are no gifts beyond the grace of God shown in the person and the passion of Christ.  It is this very grace that causes the stir of this Christmas season to begin with.  Let us never, not ever lose sight of that which matters most.  Let us strive to keep that focus and dedicated zeal for Him throughout this wonderful and joyous season, remembering the true and sure source of joy and wonder, who is God Himself.

Saved from the Flood

Rodney, an average, middle-aged man was sitting on his couch in his living room watching the television as the National Weather Service warnings of flash flooding in his area were blinking across the screen.  He heard a knock on his door that he would have rather ignored it if it weren't for its persistence.  He labored to the door to find his neighbor, Edna, asking him to join her family's car in getting out of town to safety.  Rodney simply nodded and gently said, "Thank you, Edna, but God will save me."

The floods came and Rodney made his way to the roof as the waters rose to his gutters.  He was sitting on top in relative peacefulness as he watched one of his neighbors, Ned, in a boat coming towards him.  Ned called out to Rodney, "Hey, Rodney! Jump in the boat; the floods are still rising.  The water will be over your house in no time!" Rodney calmly replied, "No thanks, Ned.  God will save me."

The waters continued to rise and, before long, Rodney could no longer touch his roof and was swimming above his house in the newly-formed lake that was once his neighborhood.  Rodney had been swimming for a while when a rescue helicopter came to him and was hovering overhead.  A man strapped onto a pulley stepped out of the helicopter and was lowered down to Rodney.  The man reached out to Rodney but Rodney refused his aid, shouting over the splashes, "I don't need your help, God's gonna save me."  The rescuer tried to save Rodney a couple more times to no avail before eventually giving up, returning to the helicopter that flew away, no doubt to save someone more willing to be saved.

At some point, not much later, Rodney became too-tired to swim any longer and he slowly sank into the water and passed on.  In heaven he came to God and asked pointedly, "God, where were You?  I thought you would save me but you never came!"  God looked gently at Rodney and then spoke with a thundering resonance, "Rodney, I did come to save you.  There were warnings on your television;   Edna, came to your house; Ned in his boat; and the rescue helicopter.  I tried to save you but you refused my help."

While this is a fictitious story, it aptly describes how some people view salvation.  All humanity is in desperate need of salvation from our sin, from our flesh.  And God, in His infinite mercy, paid the price for our sin by concentrating it into the flesh of His very own Son, Jesus.  Now, upon confession and belief in the work of Christ, we are saved.  This all being true, many people still have a skewed perspective of salvation.  So, as God holds out Christ for our sake, we refuse Him either because we do not believe we are in need of salvation or because we think of salvation other than what it is, that it will come in a different form.  Both of these misperceptions are flawed and dangerous.  Therefore, let us cling to Christ in faith knowing that He alone can save us from the deluge of this sinful world!