Jesus Christ

Frailty, Thy Name Is Christmas

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Norovirus.

That’s what the formal name for the bug. For us and our extended family at Christmas, norovirus swept through the ranks and reduced “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” to a lot of toilet-hugging. I can’t remember the last time I got a stomach bug, maybe a decade or more, but I, and everyone around me, will certainly remember Christmas 2008.

Four years ago it was the genuine flu. My son got it two weeks before Christmas, then I fell ill. Then the family came in from other parts. It must’ve lingered because most got sick within hours of showing up, it seemed.

But nothing matched the power of this norovirus. Fortunately, it only lasted about a day, but for a day it kicked everyone like a mad mule.

God came down from heaven and lived as a man. You’ve got to believe that He picked up a virus or two while on Earth. He can identify with all our frailties, right?

That fact that God can identify with our frailties makes me love Him all the more. He knows that you and I are dust. He knows because He lived as dust, even though His body never saw decay. His living as dust makes the Resurrection all the more compelling. He is the firstborn among all brethren, and His rebirth is my promise.

Even in dust, even in the midst of frailty, there is hope.

For Jesus is not just our Lord and Savior; He is our brother.

Love’s Pure Light

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StarsDarkness.

I noticed darkness more this year. The world seemed dimmer and more unfriendly. This Christmas, the most glaring effects of that darkness are the gloom hovering over the world economic situation and the lack of Christmas lights.

A couple weeks ago I noticed the dearth of Christmas lights compared with last year. People just didn’t put them up. Electrical bills are too high, I guess. Or folks suffered from the fatigue that comes when times are bad, so the lights became just another thing to do that took too much effort.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The babe in the manger outshone the star that signaled His birth. He wasn’t just a source of light, He WAS Light.

And when that tiny child became a man, He said something radical to all who love Him and honor Him as Lord:

“You are the light of the world.”

Light gives birth to lights, and those lights will send the darkness fleeing.

If the Lord would have us honor Him as did all those who came to His cradle in those first days of His birth, He would say that He has lit the flame in us with His own lifelight, now we are to be the light in the darkness.

At this blessed Christmastime, People of God, show this dark world the light.

And Maranatha.