So, I am on mission and i was sitting in my truck waiting to leave and I was thumbing through some letters that I got in this care package. Right before we left the Chaplain left some Christmas care packages with a bunch of different goodies and a huge stack of cards. Most of the time people don't really take the time to read the letters. Its really easy to just chuck the cards and pilliage the packages for stuff you like or things you need. Most of the time the cards are just very generic cards with short unpersonalized messages, which is still great cause its the thought that counts!
But as I was reading through the letters I kept on encountering phrases like, "Thank you Servicemember for serving our country and making sacrifices. You are a Hero...
Reading that over and over again leter upon letter, it started me thinking about what sacrifices I'm supposed to be making while deployed overseas. Then I think wow, I really haven't given up much. If the definition of a Hero is selfless sacrifice in the service of others with no benefit to self then you know technically no servicemember would qualify cause we do get paid to come over here and in taking the fight to "terror" we are just making our lives at home more safe. If I had to think of someone that fully and totally embodied this idea of hero, it would be Jesus Christ!
Think about it you have an eternal omnipotent being that decided to give up everything to die for people that hate him. Jesus a being so vast and whose very existence is unfathomable by human comprehension. Whose dwelling is a place of such opulence that can not ever be paralled by anything in this universe. Thrones of gold, seas of gems, if we were to ever look upon the throne of God we would have to turn away because we could not stand the radiance. This guy Jesus he's like the king of kings a mega prince. He decided to leave his position and comfort of "home" and decided to come to earth. That's like Bill Gates deciding to leave his mansion and live in a cardboard box next to a grease dumpster. He took on a position where he had no power at all. Can you imagine the creator of the universe going from omnipotence where he controls the life and death of stars, the formation of planets to a manger inside of a musty manure filled cave in a hill billy town called Bethlehem?
Jesus subjected himself to the authority of human parents, the Jewish education system of the time and puberty! That's like Jennifer Garner saying," hey I want to trade the life that I have right now to go back to Junior High when I was a four eyed pimply faced band geek outcast!"
Not only did Jesus knowingly decide to put himself through all this, he came to earth knowing how his life would end. Not just that it would end, but that it must end violently! He came to earth knowing he had to die a painful death to bring freedom to humankind. And he also knew that people would reject him. He knew that people wouldn't know why he came to earth that they wouldn't care that he came to give his life so that people might live life more abundantly. Jesus Christ went from the glory "glory" dreams about having to rags.
If I had to name the greatest hero of all time it would be the one that gave up the most, and that person would be Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave everything so that everyone might have life!
Jesus Christ is the reason for the season. Jesus Christ is the hero whom we celebrate this Christmas. CHRISTmas is the commemoration of Jesus' sacrifice, his life and grace which he gives to all as a gift.
So Merry Christmas to you all and celebrate this Christmas by following suit celebrating the actions of the worlds greatest hero and honoring His sacrifice.
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