Reflection

Nyah pauses to reflect on the birth of the Christ child...

No, not really, she stayed still like this for about 1 second. But I have been thinking about Jesus' birth a lot lately. Now I know the joy of a baby. Would I have given my only child as a sacrificial gift to redeem the world to myself if I was God? Knowing the pain and suffering my child would have to endure would be great? I can't even watch the "Passion of the Christ" without cringing, tears streaming down my face. I am so sorry that Jesus had to go through that and that my sins were among those that he was paying the price for.

This has become more significant of a sacrifice now that I am a mother. I never really thought about it from God's point of view before. Just that He did it and I was grateful. But now I know whenever my child is in pain it breaks my heart. I would do anything to take their place. I would do anything to make the hurt go away. I would never sign them up for pain for someone else's benefit. What a gift of love! And all we have to do is receive it. It seems too easy. But that is the beauty of the Good News. It is simple. Some miss it because of that.

Surely God must want something more from us. Don't we have to follow a list of do's and don'ts or something like that? Don't we have to spend the rest of our lives trying to be good enough? No. Then it wouldn't be a gift. We would have "earned" it. We follow God out of love and gratitude. We want to go to church and fellowship with other believers! We want to show others love because we feel it in our hearts! We want to live a righteous and holy life before God because we love Him and want to make Him happy. Because we know we will see Him again someday and want to hear the words "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Much the same way I want to please my earthly father and make him proud. I know that he loves me and it would pain him to see me living in sin, hurting myself and those around me.

God doesn't expect us to be perfect. He knows that we are but dust, formed from the dust. He knows our limitations, faults, tendencies toward selfishness, etc. He loved us anyway, and desired to bring us to Him, to not have to spend eternity apart from Him.

"Thanks be unto God for His Unspeakable Gift."

2 Corinthians 9:15