Christmas – 2015
Well here we are knocking right on the very door of Christmas; it is almost too late to adjust anything now as we are now only mere hours away, a lot of us are now on “Year End Holidays” as Companies start to close down for a break, and Retail gears up for the last mad rush of the “Silly Season” when all last minute sales are made, then budgets are met, exceeded, or fallen short of.
The Rural arena is now focussing on weather, grass growth for cropping for the winter feed, monitor the progress of maize or beets as to how many stock one can hold onto over summer or how much has to leave the farm as things start to dry out. How are the storage dams doing and will they hold out, and what happens if it gets very dry and the bore dries up and the pump tries to pump subterranean dust.
We have all those family “Get Togethers” yet to come or just recently past, with the mad press of places to go and people to see. Some farmers have the cows still cycling in their round of milking, moving, feeding, strip grazing, and the list cycles on as it always had day in day out.
Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” JB Philips goes something like this, “don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould” or the Amplified Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world- this “age”, fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs. But be ye transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind- by its new ideas and new attitude- so that ye may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].
Most mothers are feeling very much “squeezed,” “moulded,” or “formed,” by the mad rush and the pressures of life. The silly thing about all this is that at the Christian Roots, we are admonished to back off the rush and to re-focus on Jesus Christ. The Jews of old all longed and looked forwards to the birth of the Redeemer, and then rushed through life and missed him completely, pretty much from rulers to servants, this event was just another day in the calendar and another day of work work work.
Nearly 2000 years ago, it was “just another day,” and many missed the whole event unfolding in a Stable, but can we not also fall into the same trap and be so busy with forms and externals that we forget to have a relationship with each other, and then rush past our Saviour with hardly a glance, and missing the most important person and in putting him in the most important place in our lives, on the throne as King and Lord of our lives.
We all remember this story in Luke 10:38-42 “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Martha was oh so busy with protocols, great image, giving her special master, Jesus Christ, the best food in the house and prepared in the best possible way and to make sure his disciples and the followers and also the Religious Leaders/Dignitaries were suitably impressed by the hospitality. We have this verse on the same subject as found in Matthew 16:26 “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
It is so easy to let the cares of life skew things out of sequence and we get to “Majoring in Minors.” All our efforts go into non important things and the critical long term things just get passed over and omitted. Let us therefore each resolve to swap our priorities back to what is actually beneficial and important; Family, Community and Jesus Christ the ruler of all.
It would do all of us a lot of benefit if we would take the time to go to a quiet place (most churches have their doors open most of the time) and place our Bible on our lap and to quietly read, or once more to re-read the first few chapters of Matthew. Look at the number of people that just missed the point. After the Angel Choir, where is the parade, community involvement to move the baby Jesus into a posh Hotel or the best Bedroom of the fanciest mansion in town. It is all missing, the wee family did move from a stable into a house (Matt 2:11) but the “cares of life” seemed to squeeze, and few seemed to resist the pressure and to make a stand. Dear Reader; will you at this time like so many of the busy masses, just rush past the Saviour of the World, the one who bled and died on Calvary for your sins, to give you a really amazing Eternal Life, that baby once born in Bethlehem? Let us each resolve to be a bit more of a Mary and to spend more time at Jesus’ feet and to get our “Spiritual Life” in order, and to stress less about fancy banquets, and things that fade away, and spend more time with things with an eternal benefit.
