You've likely all seen, heard or read those cutesy little Christmas songs, poems and stories about people who arrive empty-handed to the manger scene to worship Jesus. Their endings are mushy, yet moving. Tonight I'm asking myself why.
“What can I give him poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a Wiseman I would do my part. But what can I give Him? I'll give him my heart” -Christina Rossetti
This is one poem among many. There are even songs in Spanish about not having anything to give Jesus so I'll give him my heart.
My adorable Daddy wrote one last week for and inspired by my equally if not more adorable niece and nephews that said they wanted to be sloths in the church Christmas pageant. In part 2 the slow moving sloths meet the Magi and ride with them on the camels to go worship the Baby Jesus. They arrive and the Magi present their gifts and Stevie, the youngest sloth (who correlates to my nephew Isaiah-who I also identify with the most since I'm the ba
by of my family) wants to give Jesus something too, so he gives him his tree-branch snack that he brought along for the trip. So sweet I had tears in my eyes!
What makes stories like this so sweet? Yeah, the stories like this are mushy and almost lame. But they are so sweet and powerful that they can't just be brushed aside. There is real truth in them. This isn't to philosophize and make a puddle a trench -which I think Christians do far too often.
But really-what do we, mere humans, creatures have to offer our Creator and King? He made us and we belong to him! We have nothing to offer but ourselves! And that is what God wants! He wants us to turn away from our selfish rebellious lives and turn to him and give Him the worship and praise He deserves. This can be done through giving God gifts. The gifts the Magi gave Jesus were very fitting and actually prophetic (gold because He is the King, frankincense because he is the Great High Priest, and myrrh to prophesy about His death). And Stevie the Sloth's offering, like the widow's 2 nigh worthless coins that she offered to God (see Mark 12), was pleasing to God because the gift was all that there was that could be given.
How amazing is our God! How great is His love that He makes us and gives us life and loves us and redeems us, even though we are rebellious rotten jerks. And Christ the King and High Priest came to earth and was fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life and then gave it up that we might be saved, even though we are rotten, rebellious jerks. Giving ourselves to Him sure isn't much, especially since we're rotten jerks. But He still loves us and accepts us as we are. And when we give ourselves back to Him, he has a way of transforming us and making us not so rotten and rebellious anymore. What amazing love and grace! And that is all the more reason to worship Jesus!
No comments:
Post a Comment