Merry Christmas!
I have to say, that as much as I thought my parents wouldn’t let me get some sleep this Christmas, I have slept like a baby over the past few days. This morning my parents did wake me up however so we could share presents before the rest of the family came over for breakfast. That has been a little tradition of ours for a long time now, and it is kind of nice to see everyone on Christmas day.
There are still some people over here at my parent’s house talking in the sunroom and putting together a puzzle (another tradition around the Costner house each Christmas). It is kind of fun to hear them all out there enjoying each other. For that matter, I absolutely love it when everyone comes over and gets together to talk about what’s going on in their lives. It usually is just family and some really close friends, but nothing beats a good party where I can converse about sports, politics, and theological stuff (I love talking about the Scriptures!).
This morning when everyone was sitting around the table, my grandmother said jokingly that she had a request, and that was for my mom to continue this tradition more than just once a year. Although she was half-way joking, I began thinking about what she was saying. She wasn’t meaning why don’t we celebrate Jesus’ birth more than one day a year, but I guess I want to pose the question, why not? Why don’t we celebrate Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection more than just once or twice a year, if we count Easter? Outside of those two holidays there aren’t that many holidays where the community seems to come together to celebrate.
As I began reading in Mark a little bit ago, I got to where Jesus had healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and where the town people began bringing the sick to see Jesus in hopes of their friends and family being healed from their sickness. In verse 33, the Scripture says that “The whole town was assembled at the door.” I can’t help but picture almost a Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter party being held at this house Jesus was staying in. The truth is that Jesus was there, and by default, a crowd gathered.
I don’t know exactly why this happened, but for some reason the people in this town placed on Jesus an authority to lead them, even though they didn’t really know Him. They trusted Him not only with their life, but with their families and friends lives. Maybe they didn’t fully trust Him, but they were desperate enough for healing in their own life that they were willing to give Jesus a chance. I can’t help but think how desperate I really am and have been for Jesus to be in my life. I don’t know how you all are with your relationship with Jesus, but I have to ask Him to be in my life every day. Not that I want to copy and paste another song in this blog, but I truly feel like Annie S. Hawks who wrote the song, I Need Thee (Jesus) Every Hour.
It is so interesting to me how literally the whole town showed up to see this man Jesus. I wonder if they were desperate like me. It’s almost like by His mere presence people would come to find Him. From this very short story of Jesus in Capernaum I am overwhelmed at how the crowd gathered, and then the crowd was healed. What would happen if we celebrated Jesus more than one or two days a year? What would happen if our church services actually began to be celebrations that our Lord has come and will come again?
There are so many people in the World who doesn’t know Christ, and I understand that all won’t come to know Him. But here’s the thing, if we truly celebrated Christ and truly lived a life of celebration that we can overcome with Christ, I can’t help but believe that the crowd would gather, and then the crowd would be healed. At the name of Jesus, the one we supposedly celebrate today, mountains bow down, the blind see, the deaf hear, people rise to life, the lepers become clean, and demons shutter.
I’m not big on making promises I can’t keep, but I hope that I can live the rest of this year, the next, and so forth, living a life that celebrates Christ. In doing so, I believe that not only will I see a difference in my own life, but I think people will come to find a Jesus that will make a difference in theirs. Merry Christmas again! Now quit reading this and go and celebrate!!!