The scars and stars of Christmas

I had the slight mishap this morning of waking up at 11:15am, 15 minutes after my church service actually starts. Needless to say, I didn't make it, so I decided to catch a sermon on TV. Now, all TV sermon guys are NOT created equal, so I'm always slightly weary when I flip the stations. This morning, however, I stumbled upon a guy from Love Worth Finding, and he was doing a sermon on the scars and stars of Christmas. I think the thing that struck me most was his illustrations. One of the things I hear people say is that a good God cannot exist if there's so much pain and suffering in the world. What I found really clarified his point for me was when he talked about how we as humans survive. If something causes us pain, like a wound or something like that, we usually attempt to withdraw from the cause of pain. If we didn't FEEL that pain though, we wouldn't withdraw, or even know we were being hurt. Lepers are like that...they have no feeling in their legs, feet, arms, and they end up hurting themselves because they can't feel the pain. Pain is actually a good thing, because it will stop us from doing things to hurt ourselves or others. Therefore, pain is actually something God thought up to keep us from further injuring ourselves! I really like the leper illustration, because it's true...I saw a woman being interviewed on TV, and she said the worst thing about being a leper was that she couldn't feel anything and that she hurt herself so much. :(

He used the other illustration to explain why God came to earth as Jesus. He asked the parents to think about a situation where they were on a vacation in some paradise somewhere, and to imagine that their children got hurt in some way. He asked the parents whether they could stand to stay in that paradise vacationing while their children were hurt. My answer would definitely be NO! I'd fly home as fast as I could to be with my children. And the thing is, that's what God did. There He was, in heaven, seeing His children shooting themselves in the foot, and He wanted to be with them. So what did He do? He went to them. And because of Jesus, we can be with Him.

I thought it was a good reminder of the Christmas story, and I realized how much illustrations really clarify things for me. I had a good Christmas, but it wasn't as festive as other years. We had the traditional Japanese friends of the family dinner and I got to see my high school friends. It's weird though, because as we grow older, I can tell there is some drifting apart. It's neat how you can gather at Christmas though and just celebrate friendship.

To close, I wanted to ask you to keep a couple of my friends in your prayers. Carol's been diagnosed with colon cancer and it was caught early, so the doctors will be operating in January. My other friend's father is still in the hospital with brain injuries, so please pray for his healing too.

I'm praying you all have a meaningful, loving, refreshing Christmas season!