Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Grabbed this from a MySpace Blog

Thanks go Josh Peas for writing this up and posting it.
Do you see what I see?
Or so the Christmas song goes, asking a question then not waiting for the answer.
Do you see what I see?
Lying in the middle of a manger – a bundled-up baby lying in hay, or so they say, and we already know exactly how the story goes – a tidy scene with shepherds and angels and Mary and mangers.
But do you see what I see?
How no one quite knew what to do with this tiny little baby born in Bethlehem. How he provoked anger and awe and confusion and questions. How this tiny little baby made wise men want to seek Him and King Herod want to kill Him, and angels to proclaim Him. How shepherds flocked to bow before Him and how Mary and Joseph sat and watched and wondered how this fragile child – born in afterbirth and umbilical cords, incapable of words, but wailing and feeding and sleeping in a feeding trough - could possibly be God in the flesh.
Do you see what I see?
How Mary and Joseph raised Jesus in a town where people whispered and gossiped and guessed who the REAL father of this bastard child must be. Because who could believe, that He was conceived, the way Mary said. No, far more likely that she was in another man's bed. Illegitimate this Jesus. What could God ever do with someone like Him?
Do you see what I see?
How a 12-year-old child, discussed and debated the Pharisees – these experts in endless decrees, the holy ones of Israel. "How cute" they may have thought. How gifted, this young boy Jesus. Quite a future for this one they may have said. Not knowing that the child they now admired, they would one day want dead.
Do you see what I see?
How He turned fishermen and financiers, lepers and lawyers, Pharisees and prostitutes, into those who would change the world. How he alienated people preoccupied with power, and pride, and the promise of wealth.
Do you see what I see?
How no one still knows what to do with Him.
n Was He a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord?
n Is He the hope for the hopeless like the shepherds thought?
n Or is He a fool's hope for the weak-minded like some say today?
What do you see?
n Is He the King of Kings, or an imaginary, inflated fable?
n Is He God in human skin, or is He just a good man?
n was He beat for our sins and bruised for our rebellion?
n By the lacerations made across his back by an iron-tipped whip, are we really healed?
What do you see?
… when you look at the baby in the manger. Who is he?
n A fuzzy feeling?
n A Christmas tradition?
n An outdated myth?
Or Immanuel – God with us. The infinite in human skin born a man. An invasion into the realms of sin, sent to suffer and die, then live again.
Do you see what I see?
And unlike in the song, this time the question requires an answer. … from all of us.
So … what do you see?