“I‘m SO Glad He Came!”
Do you ever feel that way? Glad someone came to visit, to share a gift or a word or a deed that just lifted you, met a need and inspired you to do the same for someone else? My brother-in-law did that for me this Christmas. After four years of frustration with internet access in our home, he took me to Best Buy and bought a wireless router that actually works. By that evening our kitchen island bar looked like a Starbucks with four laptops wirelessly connected and cousins enjoying picts and Facebook and surfing the web.He also went with me to Academy Sports and came out with new pool balls for the pool table someone in our church gave us. I didn’t expect it, didn’t ask for it, planned to buy them myself, but before I could find them, he was at the counter with them checking out. And the conversations we had over three days reminded me that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. We are tools of God, uniquely fashioned to cultivate the hearts of people and plant the seed of truth by all means possible. My vision was rekindled, passion restored, resolve deepened and conviction recovered. I’m so glad he came!Then a young man coming out of a homosexual lifestyle sent me a Christmas card that reminded me why God came to earth. He came for me and for you. He came to visit, to share a gift and a word and a deed that lifts us out of ourselves, and He came to meet a desperate need we couldn’t meet in ourselves and to inspire us to do the same for others…that is, share of His great deed! The card reminded me that we need Someone so much bigger than ourselves to reach in and pull us out of ourselves. That Jesus would disrobe and enter into my world reminds me again that we are here on earth for more than ourselves. I’m so glad He came!
And others come as well. One’s in need, searching, missing the boat, embittered, discouraged, self-consumed! They come because we are light in their dark world. They are searching for hope, but cannot see past their own misdeeds. They need a gift or a word or a deed that will lift them out of themselves and God has chosen us to deliver unto them His Son. Just Jesus. The only One who can meet their deepest need, give them a brand new life and inspire them to offer the same for others. He is the Word made flesh who speaks the heavenly “I love you!” in a demonstration of selflessness that satisfies the wrath of God against sin, breaks the curse of the Law and the chains of death, renders the Prince of Darkness powerless and makes the captive free.
More needs will come this year. More frustrations with relationships and jobs and things that break down. We will feel afresh our neediness and be tempted once again to look to our own resources for the solutions. We’ll feel empty again. But let these times be a reminder that we are broken and needy and that we cannot fix ourselves. Remember this is why He came. He is everything we are not! He sees our needs and has the resources to meet them in ways we do not expect, with things we don’t even ask for, and at times when we planned to do it ourselves. I am SO glad He came!
