Thursday, December 21, 2006

Are you ready?

"Are you ready for Christmas?"

A common salutation in late December,
so, "Are you?"

We prepare for long anticipated family gatherings
with anticipation, sometimes with anxiety,
for some folks, with dread.
So much to buy, to plan, to do, to prepare.

Are you ready?

As we age we recall at Christmastime
lost family members and lost relationships .
Are you ready to deal with those memories
of Christmas past?

"Long past?"
" Your past, Ebeneezer."

Are you Ready?

Get ready for Christmas.
Step back from the busyness and consider whose birth we celebrate.

Consider the wonder of the Creator stepping from his proper place on the throne of the Universe to enter His creation. As one Author wrote, it is a much greater step down than it would be for a man to become an ant, or an amoeba; because men and women, insects and amoebas are all created .

The incarnation - literally "in the flesh", God becoming human-
is on the order of a Painter stepping into a two dimentional painting, or an Author entering His books as character- setting aside , for a time, His pen so that the two dimentional creations could know the three dimentional Creator.

(Imagine that for a moment.
It's a lot to wrap our little brains around.)

Similarly, Jesus Christ came so that finite beings could know the infinite God. Not just know of Him, but know Him. He came also to deal with the thing that separates the created from Creator - sin.
"Only an infinite God could bear the full penalty for all the sins of all the people"*

The wise men didn't scurry about buying each other gifts,
but they did bring gifts to the newborn King as an act of worship.
What can we learn from the gifts of the Magi,
the gold, frankinscense and myrrh?
Please click on this to read Peter marshall's commentary-
Get ready.

Merry Christmas,
Terry

Click over to Angel's blog
for a Holidays and Calories open track back:
http://www.womanhonorthyself.com/?p=2103

3 comments:

Terry_Jim said...

Thanks for stopping and leaving a comment.
I have a friend in Omaha who is Canadian and
a computer guy also. Small world, big countries.
System analyst , I think.anyway,
Merry Christmas, and thanks again.
Terry

Terry_Jim said...

Joe,
Atheism certainly is a belief.
It is one I shared, at least in practice.
I just couldn't maintain enough faith in the nonexistence and/or irrelevance of God to continue my life as an agnostic/practicing atheist.

It was hard at first to give up irreligion because it was the foundation of my life, I felt a sense of loss, but the feeling passed, and then filled with something more wonderful then you ever imagined, truthful scientific reality, it's a vast universe and an even greater Creator.
;-)
Merry Christmas, Joe.

WomanHonorThyself said...

hey TJ!...nice nice post!..are we ever truly ready?..smiles
happiest holiday to u and yours my friend...(the food sounds yummy..lol)