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 We all wait for her to tell us if she’s happy with
us or unhappy. If ever unhappy, we all jump into performance mode
and do our best circus acts trying to entertain her and return her
to smiles and giggles. After all (cue our best baby voice) “she’s
just a cute baby.”
Yes, baby Emma gets a lot of attention.
The same is true of a baby born 2,000 years ago. Very few people are
threatened by baby Jesus. After all, he’s just a cute baby. Aww . .
. but allow that baby to grow up and then tell us how to live? Well,
that’s another story.
Who gave Jesus the right to tell anyone how to live?
In fact, this is probably the number one reason we avoid reading the
Bible. Right? Not because we’re too busy. Not because we don’t
understand it. No. It’s simply because we don’t want the grown up
Jesus telling us how we should live our lives.
I can hear our thoughts now, “You went too far here Jesus. I
disagree with you on this topic Jesus! I believe I’ll go a different
direction on this one!” And before we know it, we have turned off
Jesus’ input in our lives because we don’t like what he says. “If
that’s all Jesus has to offer, to tell us how to live, then no
thanks.”
However, Jesus gave us a more surprising reason for why he came to
earth. Not just to tell us how to live, or to guilt us or shame us.
Instead, when Jesus himself was asked why he came he gave a
surprising answer: “I have come that they might have life and have
it abundantly.”
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Wow! Who doesn’t want life? Who doesn’t want an
abundant life? Everyone! Right?
Yet, instead of drawing closer to grown up Jesus for this kind of
life he offers, we’d rather avoid the grown up Jesus and focus once
a year on baby Jesus. We can handle baby Jesus. Could it be that
maybe we’re missing out on something here? Is there more to this
Jesus thing than we realize?
YES! Abundantly more!
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