What Is Lost

Soon the shelves will be empty.  The layaway bin will be desolate.  Nothing will remain but the waste-your-money pick-ups by the check out counter.  All these things plus human relief that it is about done for another year will surely signal the nearness of Christmas Day.  It is a shame that a day with such spiritual significance has been compromised to the point that it has become only a day we are glad to see in the rear view mirror.

 

If we could only hit the re-set button and see how things might have been, or how they could be, our grief for what is lost would be even greater.  It would be overwhelming.  What we have forgotten is the child's anticipation of Christmas morning.  What we no longer see is the sense of wonder described in that story of shepherds and traveling men from the East.   No longer do we see the event at Bethlehem as an event which not only changes lives, but has forever changed history.  There is nothing to which we can compare this moment in time when God acted to bring a means of deliverance to all of us.

 

Perhaps, the most important thing we no longer see is our sin.  It is something with which we have learned to live.  It has become something which is an acceptable part of what it means to be human because it is nothing more than what everyone else is doing.  To look in the mirror and see a sinner means realizing that a horrible thing has occurred which we have caused and to realize that another horrible thing is necessary if our life is to be made right.  What we have lost in our journey toward adulthood is not the man from the North Pole, but the Savior sent from God has the power to save us, to deliver us, to forgive us, and to make us right once again before the One who created us.