Beyond all the hoopla of Christmas, and beyond all the turmoil of our world, there are divine qualities that endure and enrich the human experience. This year, we’re focusing on four of these qualities as we approach Christmas Day. I am convinced that these qualities are the very thing that can use to make sense of all the hoopla as well as all the turmoil.
This last Sunday, we discovered that the ‘wonder’ (recorded in Luke 2) is actually a word that explodes with the realization that God had invaded the turmoil of a Roman occupied Israel with the coming of the long awaited Messiah. God invaded with angels, with the ‘glory of God’ shining all around the shepherds in the dark of the night, with the fulfillment of prophecy by Jesus being born in Bethlehem and the shepherds glorifying and praising God on their way back to their humdrum jobs…having been the unlikely recipients of God’s announcement. All of this just ‘blew their minds’ with amazing, stunning, astonishing beauty and incredible excitement. And to think, the world almost missed it. The world generally did miss it until 30 some years later. Even then, the world almost missed it again as they crucified Jesus like a common criminal. But somehow the world didn’t miss the reality that He defeated death three days later. It was the death of death, the death of what is killing us: our alienation from God. Christ bridged that on our behalf. We couldn’t do it for ourselves, the chasm was just too wide! That is truly astonishing! That is marvelous!! That is stunning!! That is real!!
This week, we will be looking at another quality. This quality is possibly the defining quality that each and every person on planet Earth is desperate for. It is a quality that escapes us so often. We are often void of this quality both within us and around us. The impact of the absence of this quality handicaps us in untold ways. We, unfortunately, find ourselves destroying others and actually destroying ourselves. Yet we ache for this quality. We search for this quality. We call out for this quality… but we can’t seem to find it in the vacuum of the human heart. So, once again, we need this life giving quality to be imported from beyond ourselves.
Join us Sunday at 10am and discover the quality that we are so desperate for.
Yours,
Kevin