Responding to the grinch

Hm-m-m, how would you respond to the Grinch’s enigma?

Thought I would share some of the joy that I experience at this time of year with a reminder that God the Father sent, for all peoples of all times in all places, the gift of God the Son. Jesus came to earth on mission as a not-so-secret agent of reconciliation.

Christmas is a time for family and friends. But yesterday, I learned that a very close friend, who was working for his sister, just got fired because she was upset with him. Nice Christmas present :-(

I actually learned of this through another friend. I went to visit her with a little present from our family. I figured being single, she might have been feeling a bit lonely at this time of year because, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, she too had become alienated from a bunch of her friends.

In spite of separations like this, I still have hope because of Jesus. He came to earth on a mission to bring people back together. By the way, whether one recognizes it or not, you, I and all people everywhere have also been alienated from God.

Maybe we have not committed atrocities (and then again maybe we have), but neither have we been perfectly just, perfectly loving, perfectly kind to all the people that come across our path on any given day or lifetime. And our unwitting wrongs (not to mention our deliberate ones) can separate us one from another and have separated us from God. Or as a sage of old put it, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you.”

But God the loving Father so desired relationship with all people, both nice and nasty, that he sent His Son as an intermediary to reunite us. Could this be the “more” that the Grinch sought behind the Christmas festivities? Hm-m-m.

The baby Jesus grew up. But Jesus was different from other young men. He interacted perfectly with everyone that crossed his path; those who were hurting he helped, those who were in the wrong he rebuked, those who sought him he spent time with. He showed us what it was to love perfectly.

Because God is perfect He cannot tolerate evil; it must be punished or justice collapses. But He is also inherently loving. So He sent Jesus, who led a perfectly just life, and in his love for us all, willingly agreed to accept the punishments for every injustice committed by every one of us, so that all people everywhere could enjoy a relationship with his perfect, loving Father. Jesus was sentenced to death for the imperfect behavior, words, attitudes, as well as the evil, injustice and atrocities of the whole world throughout all time.

People, whose trust is in Jesus, are acquitted from their crimes and misdemeanors because Jesus took their punishment as though he had done the wrong himself. And now, those people whose place their faith in Jesus and the amnesty he offers can connect with the perfect, loving God.

In case you are interested, the prerequisite for receiving this forgiveness for one's own nasties is to admit that one has been unwittingly and willfully bad and to place one’s confidence in Jesus, that he has accepted the punishment that "I" deserve.

I have found that by placing my confidence in Jesus — the guest of honor at the Christmas festivities — I have been able to enjoy a deepening relationship with God, enjoy rather good relationships with people, and at times have had the privilege of being an agent of reconciliation between people who have become alienated one from another.

So possibly this Christmas, believers and skeptics alike might take the time to entertain the Grinch's questions, "What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"

As we say here in la belle France, Joyeux Noël !
paul