One of my favorite pasttimes is people watching...although admittedly most of the people watching I do now is the little people in my home!
But this past week, I've really been watching people. People at church, people in the post office, people here and there.
The ones in the post office: there was this young woman mailing a package and she was chattering non-stop about what she was mailing. It didn't take long for us all to figure out she was just a little bit off her rocker.
But the lady behind the counter had her nose turned up at her and wasn't even acknowledging that she had spoken!
So I jumped in.
I couldn't help it. I know I looked a little foolish, but everytime I see that, I feel it as if it were me. (The young lady probably didn't know a thing was amiss!)
But it made me think of the passage we read in church Sunday, Isaiah 53. When Jesus came, He wasn't beautiful or appealing. He didn't have any "wow" factor. And people flat out rejected Him.
It got me thinking...what if He always comes like that? What if He comes weak and vulnerable and unlovely? What if He is found in the stable and not the Inn? And do we look for Him amongst the classy, the well spoken, the ones who have it all together? Or do we get our hands dirty and kneel to serve Him amidst the stable smells?
And if we turn our face from the one in need...if we reject the one He has given us to love...if we pretend it isn't our job and set ourselves aloof...well, haven't we done that unto HIM? And didn't He say it with His own words, that whatever we do to the least of these we've done it unto Him?
How do we treat Jesus?
There's no sense fooling ourselves into thinking we'd do it better if He were standing in our midst. He IS in our midst. Immanuel, God with us.
He is the weak and vulnerable.
He is the poor and needy.
He is the despised and rejected.
He is the one without beauty and attraction.
How do we treat Jesus?
It's a question I'm asking myself and yall, I've spent lots of time in the stable and I rather prefer it there. Sure, I'm pretty smelly and dirty and some folks don't have a whole lot to do with me, but JESUS is there!
And that's where I want to be.
merry Christmas, everyone. This will probably be it for awhile on the blog again :)
and I said sure. Well, the day it arrived, my son saw it sitting on the table. He grabbed it and started reading.
Posts
"I Can't Do This!"
4 months ago
