December 24 2013

December 24 2013
Greetings My Friend,
Today is Christmas Eve. It is the night we remember Jesus' birth. We marvel at His
birth and we marvel at the angels singing. The joy is infectious. Hope rides on the
air like a hot air baloon.
There is something precious about a small tiny baby. A baby wrapped up and laying in a
manger is breath taking. It is simple. It is precious. There is not pomp and circumstance
in His arrival of the world's making. The pomp and circumstance is from heaven as angels
sing the glory of a Savior born this day.

Jesus starts life like we do. He is a baby and grows up. He experiences life just like we do.
He knows pain, joy and the whole gamut. I marvel at this all the time. I marvel at the simple
life Jesus was born into. Jesus never knew great financial wealth. He was not a spoiled rich
child.
Jesus came among the simplest of people. He lived life among the simplest of people. He worked
with His hands as a carpenter until He went into ministry at age 30. Even in ministry Jesus led
a very simple life. He never flaunted His diety or His authority. Amazing.
Jesus always reached out to the lost, the lonely and the hurting of His day. Jesus is the example
we strive to live if we are truly in a faith journey. Jesus was not a wimp as well. He got angry
and upset the temple courts of the money changers. Jesus was real direct and to the point as He
talked to the religous leaders of the day. He told them that they were putting burdens on the
people that was not necessary. He pointed out that the letter of the law was more and more a bunch
of rules and that the heart of the law was not followed and God wants our heart not the letter of
the law preformed.
Jesus aggrvated the religous leaders so much that they sought to have Him killed. One of Jesus followers
who was with Jesus as He preformed miricales turned Jesus in. He betrayed Jesus. Jesus was sent to a
cruel death. Jesus paid "our" penalty. Looking at that cross teaches me a ton of things.
How ugly sin is to God. The horror of hell. As I watch scene after scene of Jesus being persectued. He never
gets a break from pain but more pain keeps being added to Him. In a very weakened state He has to fight to
breathe. Up to pull air into His lungs, rest until the air is gone and then up again. He does this for hours
with a body so filled with pain I can't even begin to grasp the depth of His pain even though I try too.
Jesus dies on that cross and I feel right alongside of the believers the confusion. Jesus kept telling them that
He would come back after 3 days. They wanted Him to not die but to take over and make life right in their mind's
eye. After 3 days Jesus rises and the joy is great.
I marvel. Jesus does not come back and begin to ask "why?" He comes back and offers the hope we now take into our
lives. Jesus has a body, He walks and talks and everything. He stays for 40 days and then we see Him ascend into
heaven. From that moment on the Word goes out about Jesus, God and the love, the hope we can have if we accept
this precious gift given in such love.
Where is your heart today? On the gifts of the world or the world's gift? Think about it.
May God bless you and keep you make His face to shine on you.
Love
Janet