And do not be conformed to this world… Romans 12:2
“They look like a Santa Claus Chorus line…” my wife said as she showed me the new Christmas decorations…
Half-a-dozen Santas… looking almost alike… but in different poses…
If they are a Santa chorus line, one is clearly the star… hands raised as he belts out a Christmas carol. (“Here comes Santa Claus?”)
I arranged them the way they might appear onstage…
The star in front … the others behind him all turning toward him…
All turning their attention to the one true star.
Except…
Look at the Santa on the left side of the photo…
He’s facing straight forward and singing like he’s the star.
Perhaps the light of his own star on the top of his hat has blinded him to his real mission.
Here’s another Christmas decoration in our house…
The manger scene I bought in New York City when I was nine.
It was a time when 9 year-olds delivered newspapers alone in the dark at 4:30 in the morning and nobody worried…
A time when the newspaper took thirty 9 year-olds from farm country on a trip to New York City…
Let us loose in Macy’s… and told us to come back in an hour.
I used my hour to buy a manger scene, certain I had acquired a major work of art for twelve dollars…
Today the manger scene sits on a shelf right below the Santa chorus line…
Santa? Next to the Baby Jesus?
An odd juxtaposition?
Or a reflection of our lives?
Are we like the would-be star in the Santa chorus line?
Forgetting that our only role is to point to the one true star…
The star that leads to the birth of a child and the gift of grace ?
Sometimes even at Christmas …
Sometimes especially at Christmas…
It’s a challenge to live in this world and follow Jesus.
To remember that the Bible tells us…
…do not be conformed to this world… Romans 12:2
To remember that this life will not last forever…
…the world and its desires are fading away… 1 John 2:17
And that there is only one path to life eternal…
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
One thought on “Why Is It Difficult to Follow Jesus?”
We make the choices about what we want Jesus is King of King and Lord of Lords and he chooses us we don’t choose him. The other is a fable that we have allowed in our lives but has no real value in our life in the Kingdom.