Have you ever heard of the 2013 world of Youandme? It's a crazy world of busy-ness, of buying and selling and of a hectic pursuit of hedonistic pleasure. This is a world of few absolutes, and many relatives. This is a world without security and assurance and where much more is said about “hope so” and “might be” than “know so”. It is a world where sin is preferred to righteousness and where the temporary pleasures of sensuous gratification are considered of greater value than the eternal/spiritual pleasures of forgiveness, righteousness and assurance of a heavenly home.
In this world, God is a vague, distant, irrelevant concept – definitely not a personal, loving all powerful Creator, intimately concerned about his world and the people whom he loves. Christmas in this world of Youandme is for revelry and pleasure, for self-seeking, sensual indulgence and excess in both spending and selfishness. A different Jesus lives in this world – a figure in a bizarre childrens story of a virgin conception and a birth in a smelly shed at the back of a packed out inn. Yes, the world of Youandme is a dark world!
Yet to such a world the Creator God came. The Logos, who was and is and always will be God, stepped into such darkness and shone in all His glory. Yet as John tells us “he came to that which was his own, yet His own did not receive him” (John 1 v 11 ). His own world did not receive him; his own people did not receive or acknowledge him as Messiah king. How could they have missed him? Hadn't Isaiah told them? Hadn’t Micah told them? How could they have missed it? Because then, as now, the world was the unholy world of Youandme. A messy world of blind eyes and damned souls. Christmas? The more you think about it, the more staggering it becomes!!
I love that. I remember your first message on John 1 at the start of December which I made it to, 'The more you think about it, the more remarkable it becomes'. And 'Infinity to an infant' - great. Thanks for the reflection.
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