To try and figure out the future, to try and guess God is like holding wind in your hand. It is impossible! God is not safe. God is not tame. God is God!
And now, I want to share with you this week's Perfectly Blunt Column. It appears in two papers, one of them shows it online: http://Capjournal.com/perfect_blunt/.
I am going to cut and paste today's column in this blog. It is my first Christmas Column for the year. I will feature Christmas columns all month. Thanks for reading:
Not Our WayPosted: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 1:00 am
Christmas is here. And if you watch TV or look at print media, you’ll see a lot of perfect looking Christmas scenes. Eyes are soft with sentimental feelings. Trees glow. Packages are wrapped beautifully, and when unwrapped there are no piles of ripped paper. All stories end happily (or at least with a lot of fuzzy feelings). Everything fits neatly into our expectations.
If Hollywood would have been in charge of sending the Savior of the World He would have come looking the part.
Or, He would have at least come from good stock, parents who were gifted or royal, something incredible.
No matter what, He wouldn’t have been ordinary, just like the guy down the street.
You’d think the Perfect Creator would do it the same way.
But He didn’t (and doesn’t).
If you check out Jesus’ pedigree (which incidentally comes through His stepfather), the one that fulfilled a promise God gave to King David hundreds of years prior to Jesus’ birth, you’ll find a mess of sin and humanity.
In Jesus’ line there are cowards and deceit; a prostitute; foreigners; adultery and murder; plus some unfaithful, evil and failed kings.
This heritage would get a failing grade from anyone who judges pedigrees.
That would have been enough to make Jesus a real underdog. It wasn’t enough for God.
As we get to the culmination of the story (His birth), God sends an angel to tell Mary she was chosen to be the Savior’s mother.
That’s pretty cool. Everyone loves angel sightings.
And then what happened?
She had to tell her fiance she was pregnant (and not by him). She told Joseph an angel came to her and proclaimed she would be pregnant with the Savior of the world.
I bet she sounded crazy to him. Only insane people say things like that.
I wonder if Joseph had the guts to tell anyone in his family what she said?
He had the right to have her stoned to death.
He didn’t though.
Instead, Joseph accepted her story (after an angel told him it was true) and married her. And he kept her, and eventually the Baby, safe from those who wanted to kill Jesus.
Many in Jesus’ town thought He was Joseph’s biological son. They believed Mary and Joseph conceived Him before they were married.
Today’s society doesn’t view this as a big deal. People celebrate all the unwed celebrities who are pregnant.
Back then it was worthy of death (or at least being cast out of society).
The Holy Family agreed to this when they said yes to God. And God gave them an exciting life. It was full of amazing happenings.
It was also really hard. And often, mighty uncomfortable.
Are you going to accept the Child into your life this Christmas?
If you do, beware.
Living this way often isn’t easy or logical.
But it’s exciting.
And it’s the only way to really live.
Please check out Jane’s blog on her website http://JaneHinrichs.weebly.com. Also, check out her new kindle book called Jane’s Life, which is made up of 100 essays. Some, but not all were featured in this column.