Well...it's nearly upon us. Just a few more days till the wrapping gets recycled, the turkey becomes leftovers and the flood gates of guilt over sweets consumed, burst open. And thank goodness; what else would drive us to the gym? This will be our first Christmas in our new house. It should be fun.
I picked out a tree and nearly had to dip into savings to pick it (I'm thinking of quitting this animation stuff and growing Christmas trees for a living). 55 Dead presidents so I can spend an entire evening on my back on my front porch trying to get our tree-stand to keep our tree upright while saying words that I don't think baby Jesus would care for. I'll be happy if I don't have to do that again for a whole 12 months.
But the tree is up! So are the lights. So are the random Christmas decorations. So is the Nativity. Which brings me to my thought of the evening;
The reason we sin is because we have a distorted view of God. We don't see Him as our Saviour. We don't see Him as our guide or our judge or our counsellor or our helper. I was sitting looking at the beautiful Nativity that our family bought for us last year and I realized that I've never seen a Nativity with a real baby in it. I don't mean 'live' baby, I mean real. A baby that's covered in slime and blood and screaming because it used to be warm but now it's cold. A baby with it's eyes shut to the light and the noise. A baby fully aware of the world it just entered.
Instead I usually see this. A blue eyed, blonde baby Jesus looking as though He's carrying the invisible gift of Salvation in His hands. The Bible says that He was "fully God" and "fully man". If He was truly fully man, He would've come into this world the same way the rest of us did - through pain. I don't think it questions the "fully God" part of his being, to be hungry, or cold or sad.
I don't actually think there's anything wrong with these Nativity's. They're almost all beautiful. I just think it's good to take a break from Christian coloring book every now and then and look in a real crib with a real baby in it, and remember what exactly it meant for Jesus to become "fully man".
Merry Christmas from the Lepps!
4 comments:
Very powerful words Royden, it brought tears to my eyes while reading it. We are so blessed to have you as our son-in-law & we love you so much. Enjoy your Christmas with your family give Ruthie a big hug & kiss from us. Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas R & R!!!!
Thank you so much for having aaaaall of us at your table and hanging out (never going too far from the table) in your home. It is so cozy and so full of warmth because of your generous hearts. Thank you for the Christmas reading and devotion and for carrying on so many meaningful traditions from Dad and Mom's house to yours.
all our love,
Joanne and Merlot
Good word. And really great macro photos of your nativity scene. When do we get the Royden Lepp "Jesus as a slimy baby" verison of the Christian coloring book? Or would that be a full color comic book?
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