By Kirby Robinson
Copyright 2011-2014
Are we starting to forget what the season is all about? Turn on the TV and can you really tell it's the Christmas season? Outside of commercials pushing the latest holiday trends. What about all the great Christmas specials like the old Andy Williams or Jim Nabors variety shows—where have they gone? Does your favorite sitcom or one hour drama even acknowledge that it's Christmas? How many times has Ben-Hur or The Greatest Story Ever Told played on your local channels? Sales clerks nowadays feel uncomfortable wishing you a Merry Christmas and simply blurt out, "Happy Holidays." Are we losing the lessons this day should be teaching us?
Take a moment out of your busy schedule and think about the gift the Lord is offering us. That night 2000+ years ago that saw the birth of a Child from a deity that is offering His one and only Son to be born not into a royal family but to a couple made up of an old carpenter who scraped by on a small income with a very young wife. The Child was born under the threat of being killed. They had to sneak the Child out of Bethlehem to Egypt so they could safely return to Israel. The Child grows knowing that at some time at the peak of adulthood He must die. Not just any ordinary peaceful dying in your sleep death, but a pain filled death. He had to suffer all the deaths of mankind past, present and future. Every sin, every illness, every wound had to descend on His being so that our debts could be fully paid.
My favorite Christmas song is "Little Drummer Boy." Every time I hear it, no matter who's the singer, this song always makes me stop and think that in some way we are all little drummer boys.
We're all little children in God's eyes. And the message has always been sent to one and all to come to Him. Not to the birthplace necessarily but that image of the Child born that night is always there. The beginning of the Greatest Story Ever Told here is truly a newborn King. He will always be the only true King. There are other men of power and other kings but they have no real power in life and are forgotten in death. And what are our finest gifts to bring before the newborn King? Our love, compassion, understanding, empathy, faith, wisdom, and forgiveness.
No matter the status of wealth, fame, and power who come to Him they honor Him. We don't have to travel to His house or to an image of Him. We just have to simply gaze into the eyes of a child, witness the blooming of a flower, and bask in the brightness of the sun. We see Him, we draw closer to Him, and we honor Him.
Quite often we feel cut off from Him because we view ourselves as poor in some way. This imagined poverty might be materialistic or spiritual. At times we feel as though we don't have anything of value to offer Him.
But if we search our souls we find something to give Him: a prayer, a word, an act. That shows Him how we feel towards Him. That shows Him and us that we're not truly poor.
Because whatever that act is it brings joy and happiness to the heavens. When you honor Jesus you honor all the martyrs, saints, all the angels, the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit, and God. We might find that fear might accompany us at first but keep offering the gift and fear will disappear.
Jesus Christ will smile upon you and your act and your courage and your faith. It might not be from the manger but from the heavens. It might be in the face of a stranger or a person that you go out of your way to help. Just as with the boy who had his drum who was called to view a newborn King he felt worthless and unworthy. And offered the only thing that he had which was his drum and a simple little song. So worry not what you have to offer Him. It's the offering that counts. And don't forget that we're all just like that little drummer boy.
