Posts Tagged: Luke’s Gospel
“Beyond Currier and Ives and Hallmark”
I love Currier and Ives winter/Christmas scenes. They are very lovely. I love the feel-good Christmas stories on the Hallmark channel. I don’t actually watch them very often. I am prone to cry, my nose gets all stuffed up, and I get a sinus headache. But I do like them.
However, my own life is neither a Currier and Ives print nor a Hallmark Christmas special. My life is messy.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a lot that is right with my life. I have a wife whom I love, and who loves me. We have paid off our house and cars. We have a little money coming in, and a little money in the bank. We are, in fact incredibly wealthy, compared to probably 98 % of the people in the world.
We have good friends and we have a little dog who lights up our lives, just by being her canine self. We have things that we love to do, some of which even make us a little money.
Still, my life is messy. My mind is messy. My emotions are messy. My sleeping and work areas are messy. As my grandmother used to say to me, “You’re a mess!” (For those of you who think that grandmas are always on your side, I’ve got news for you: It ain’t necessarily so!)
And thanks to me, my wife’s life is messy, due to no fault of hers.
So, as this Currier-and-Ives-Hallmark-Channel season reaches its most feverish pitch, I comfort myself with one simple thought: According to Luke’s birth account, Jesus was born in a barn.
What?! That’s no place for a baby to be born!
No, it isn’t, and if I had been making up a story about the birth of a king, I don’t think I would have made this story-telling move. But Luke makes precisely that move: Jesus, the King, was born in a barn.
I struggle to believe it sometimes, but there it is: a king, The King, born in a very messy, humble place. I grew up on a farm. Rest assured that even the cleanest barn isn’t—clean, that is.
So, for all of you who are alienated from your families, for all of you who wish you were alienated from your families, for all of you who have lost a loved one recently, or are afraid you will soon, for all of you who are alone, for all of you who feel hopeless on this 25th day of December, 2018, for all of you who just wish the day was over, I say this:
Merry Christmas! I can say this, not because of Currier and Ives, not because of Hallmark, but because of a King who made a humble entrance, rather than a grand, royal one. I can say this because Jesus is always willing to be born in messy places, messy places like my heart and your heart.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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