Christmas with John, 9

SCRIPTURE:  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.  John 1:10-11 KJV

THOUGHT: Is there anything sadder than rejection when you bring something creative and valuable to the table and no one is interested? I’ve had it happen a few times; enough to fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus as he came to the world he made where his great, creative, valuable acts have been forgotten or disregarded. A world of people holding, perhaps, to a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5). A world where the love of sin and darkness is outpacing the love of the Word, the Life, and the Light.

The truth that grabs me the most often in my faith journey is this: it’s all his.

That thought puts everything else in perspective. He has the right to do with creation and creatures exactly as he pleases, and yet he stoops to come to earth as one of us, to experience humanness rather than judge it as he did in Noah’s day. To declare a peace treaty and the age of grace rather than scrapping it all to start over, hoping that a clean start is what mankind needs to finally get it right. Nope. He’s tried that and promised to never try it again.

Jesus is not a clean start for mankind. Jesus is an admission that there is no other way to deal with the mess humans have made of free will; no other way to deal with sin and death; no other way to redeem fallen creation. You might even say Jesus is a clean start for God. The birth of Jesus is the relief of God because now there is a perfect sacrifice on the horizon, once for all – a river of Life and Light through which God can commune even with sinful, fallen men and women who come to him on the river, in the river, through the river.

We have been swept up in the current, friends. Perhaps, for a time, we were among those who didn’t recognize or receive him, but now we are in the river flowing out from Jesus’ life: a river of life forever; the river of the light we need to illuminate the darkness around us.

SONG: River of Life (Mac Powell) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceVLJ2Xm1UM

PRAYER: Oh God, thank you that in Jesus we got something even bigger than a fresh start for mankind – it was a sea change, a river of life rather than a judgement of death for our rejection and forgetfulness. A “God so loved the world” moment that carries us, on a river of grace, home.