Dear Trekker,
As 2016 comes to a close with the annual holiday rush, I am reminded anew that so much of life understanding depends upon one’s perspective. If the word relationship speaks volumes about life’s meaning (and it is the key, in my book), surely the word perspective is the necessary flip side to discovering meaning. How true as we endure or enjoy another Christmas!
A favorite devotional book around our house, which we read (thanks to friend wife Barbara) this time of year, is Max Lucado’s, God Came Near. (Trekker, if this book is not in your library, it should be. Buy it today!) Under the apt descriptor “eyewitnesses of His majesty,” Lucado takes his readers into the very real divinity clothed in humanity Christ. Lucado writes: “Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus. Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating him whom we see. To see His Majesty and to imitate him, that is the sum of Christianity.”
“We would see Jesus” is the perspective we must have if we are to discover the meaning of Christmas and life itself. Believing there is a God who desires to communicate with us is a good starting point. Hence, a “Merry Christmas” begins with “checking out” anew the manger! But we don’t go to a manger expecting to find God as a baby! Or do we? It is a question of perspective, isn’t it?
If you were God, would you enter the world as a baby, in a smelly manger, not in a clean, freshly perfumed crib? “The stable stinks like all stables do. The stench of urine, dung and sheep reeks pungently in the air. The ground is hard, the hay scarce. Cobwebs cling to the ceiling and a mouse scurries across the dirt floor,” Lucado writes. What was God’s perspective in coming…and yours and mine?
What becomes readily apparent is “where you start” often determines where you “end up!” Start down the wrong road…God would never enter the world as a baby born to a lowly peasant couple, particularly a Jewish couple, and you’ll never discover, from God’s perspective, the meaning of God came near, establishing “Christmas” 2000 years ago! “Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter” (Lucado). Yes, one’s perspective on the events establishing Christmas is a life changing matter!
You have thought it; you have said it; you have heard the words said to you… “Open your eyes!” Of course, eyes are open, but they don’t “see.” It is difficult to see if the eyes of understanding are closed because of preconceived notions. It is habitually true in any and every area of life. For example, today, as I write, the United States of America remains in “electoral turmoil” for many. Today, electors will cast their votes for a man who “cannot be President,” “ought not be President,” and the sky is falling apart in America. How can it be? He was not supposed to win. His winning was impossible! The system is rigged! The Russians did it…etc. ad nauseum. Yes, one’s perspective on what one thinks should be either allows or prohibits understanding of what is.
Trekker, if there is one thing we better get straight if we are to understand life now and “the hereafter,” it is this: “… my thoughts (God’s) are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher (out of reach) than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8, 9). Surely placing our perspective in line with His is the key to seeing Christmas as “God came near.” Is not this “the joy to the world” we sing so heartily?
As I have said before in my writings, each Christmas I ask God the Holy Spirit to reveal something special to me. This year it seems as if God is saying that humility is the key to a Godly perspective. God does not do things as we think He should. And He certainly is not limited as we are. This should be humbling to us all. As pastor Tim Keller points out, “It takes humility to understand humility.” Surely, humility is crucial to “see” and understand the meaning of Christmas.
In announcing the “Kingdom of God” has come, Jesus did it bathed in humanity, not simply humble circumstances. “He humbled Himself and became a man” is how the apostle Paul describes it! For sure, humility can only come to us as a by-product of His grace and pardon. But the Spirit enables us to “see” when humility wins the day.
A companion thought that helps me to understand and “see” Christmas is in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus told his disciples to pray…“give us this day our daily bread. I find this emphasis on “this day” and “daily” a call to live in the present moment, forgetting the past particularly as it is bathed in His forgiveness, and not worry about the future. God has a plan and it’s working to perfection. He surely is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Is my perspective to believe, and therefore “see” the baby becoming Savior, waiting for me?
Yet another final thought… America will be truly great again only when we place Jesus Christ on the throne of our hearts and our national endeavors! And “seeing” Christmas as the human beginning of the Life that changed history is surely a good start!
Seeking to see a Savior this Christmas,
Your friend, Jim Meredith
