Now what...

Our homes that were once full of decorations, that make the young and old smile, will soon be empty.  The neighborhoods filled with lights will soon be dark.  As the New Year approaches, the Christmas season comes to end.  So, now what?  The question we must ask ourselves is, when the signs of Christmas are no longer visible, does that mean that the significance of Christmas is no longer valuable?  While the question is really a rhetorical one, it is still one we must consider.  It is so easy to remember the reason for the season, that God came, when it is front and center, but when it gets “pushed” to the back, it will become even more imperative that we recall to our mind, the importance of the season.  While the decorations are fun to set up and even more fun to see the joy on the faces of little ones, as they experience the season, the real purpose is that God came.  One of my favorite verses is found in John 1:14, “and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us...”.  WOW!  Now to see the importance of this verse you must go back to John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Additionally, you need to go all the way back to the prophet Isaiah, who declared some 600 years before Jesus would be born.  Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel (which means God with us).”  While there is so much one could look at with these two verses, the part we must remember is that God, in the form of His Son, the second part of the Trinity, came to be with us.  Think about that for a moment, God came and dwelt amongst His creation.  He came even for the ones that would reject Him, spit in His face, hit Him, make fun of Him, and turn their back on Him.  Think about times when someone has hurt you, did you want to be with them?  Would you want to be with them, especially if you knew that they would still hurt you?  Most, if not all of us, would say “no way”, while we say “no yet” God still came. Let that sink in, He came, the one that was perfect in all ways, that one that was whole and complete, came to dwell with, interact with, all that were not perfect and those that were broken.  With that in mind, we must remind ourselves that even if the visible signs of Christmas are packed away, our faith in God says that He is still with us.  Just because the Christmas season is over it doesn’t mean that He is no longer with us.  He was born so that He could be with us, always, and not just for a season.  Much love, Pastor Michael