Some Real Skin in the Game

December is amazing.

Yes, I know that there are tons of economic pressure. There are wars. And all this holiday obsessiveness causes many who are on the edge to feel their loneliness or depression even more acutely. But if you look at the old, basic message and really study it, you can be refreshed and actually transcend some of the mire "down here".

We pray in the Lord's prayer "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The reason we pray this way - and of course Jesus taught us to - is that it's God's will that His kingdom come among us here. Yes, we are in a fallen world, and yes, even the most righteous person actively at times participates in promoting the wrong things. But the hope and the power for great tomorrows is in the old basic message.

The beautiful "prologue" to the gospel of John says, referring to Jesus, "the Word became flesh". It's talking about Jesus of Nazareth, who was in the beginning with God the Father before the worlds were spoken into being. That's a loadful to swallow of course. You have to dig out your Bible, or go buy or borrow one someplace if necessary. Check it out. In a world full of blather and gossip and absolute idiocy in so many quarters, this passage gives you and me a mouthful of meat to chew on and absorb that can actually sustain us.

The ancients invented their deities, and we do that now too. But invented deities of man always end up being either in our own likeness and therefore as limited as we, or they are way out there and unattainable in the long run. This Deity was actually way out there, which is part of the point. But then, in the wisdom of the "triune conference" (research that one at a later date) our precious Lord Jesus came to this miserable planet and put skin in the game. (Think Bethlehem - and a baby that actually needed diapers, and an adoring mother, step-father, and common shepherds.)

Anyway, before getting to windy here, December is a marvelous time. Sure, the whole world generates more sales, and people have more parties, but the huge thing is that Jesus, our amazing Savior, came and took on human flesh in order to bring his peaceable kingdom to you. To me. To change our hard hearts. To offer forgiveness to the penitent. And to truly and actually guarantee us a good and solid eternity.

God bless you and keep you this December.