the power of Jesus birth

I have been a Christian all of my life. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Jesus and that He was the only way to eternal life. I admit that I have not always lived my life according to His teachings (this is an understatement) I nonetheless understood what they were about. On numerous occasions I have wondered how scripture applied to my every day life.

I know this is not unique to my experience and that all have faced this question at one time or another in their lives. However recently in reading through the gospels again I have come to a deeper appreciation if not understanding of Jesus and the importance of His life and message to us.

As I began reading through Matthew the miracles that surrounded His birth touched me in a way they never had before. I noticed the inordinate number of miraculous appearances of angels and messengers that lead up to Jesus birth and kept Him safe from harm. I began to reread these chapters again slowly, savoring each occurrence and the wonder that each event must have engendered to those it affected. I can wrap my head around angels appearing in dreams, but revealing themselves live and in Technicolor with a message from God blows my mind when I think about it. I mean think about it, the birth of Jesus was so important kings wanted to kill Him, wise men traveled thousands of miles to pay homage to him, angels appeared to announce it and then appeared again to save his life. The confluence of all these events boggles the mind and caused me to stop and look at my life again.

I realized that I had been taking Jesus for granted. In fact I needed to ask myself again, is Jesus and what he taught really that important in my daily life? Did my words and relationships reflect my desire to have Jesus be primary in my daily walk? I knew the answer and had to repent for becoming lazy and self-centered.

Then last Sunday a saw a video, again, that readjusted my perspective. It was a 40 minute video called “How Great is our God” by Louis Giglio. You can see it on You Tube where it is separated into 5 videos. It’s worth the time to watch. This video has totally readjusted my perspective. He graphically illustrates how incredibly big and powerful our God is and really how insignificant we are. Then he brings it down to our level to show that this incredibly awesome, powerful God cares for us so much that He had the cross in mind when He designed us. Jesus, His birth, life, death and resurrection was in God’s plan from the very foundation of the earth and the stars and universes that surround us. He is truly the focal point of history.

If that is true, and I believe with all my heart that it is, then I need to let Him mold me body, soul and spirit so that I reflect Jesus every day when I am alone and when I am with others. This is not optional it is what we were actually designed by our Father in Heaven to do. Jesus birth and the miraculous confluence of events that happened around it set the stage for what needs to be the foundation of our lives.