All Your works declare Your glory;
All creation joins to sing.
Praise resounds as earth rejoices
In the birth of Christ, the King.[1]
To these words my heart says "Yes," but I know many people on the earth do not rejoice in Jesus birth. They want very little to do with Jesus, in fact. To them He is an inconvenience, an ancient relic too old for our world and too demanding to be taken seriously.
In the end, however, each of us must decide for ourselves what we shall do with the baby born in Bethlehem. Shall we ignore Him? Shall we let the story rest in peace and move on to what we perceive to be greater things? Shall we follow His life far beyond the manger to see where it takes us? Shall we fall before Him and call Him Lord? What shall we do with Jesus?
For one thing, we ought not to let others determine for us what we shall do with Jesus. Those of us, who fall before Him and call Him Lord, do it because we know He is the Lord. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us. He has spoken His peace into our lives and it has forever changed us for the good.
What shall we do with Jesus? Those of the earth may or may not rejoice; but we will rejoice. We will sing, "Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of light," and we do so with hearts set on fire by His life and light and joy. He has not dealt with us according to our sins and He has received us to Himself as the Messiah, Lord of lords and King of kings.
Joy to the world!
[1] "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You," words by Linda Lee Johnson, 1985, music by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824, arr. By Edward Hodges, 1864
1 comment:
I love this. Good words. Something the Lord has brought to my awareness this month is that your question "What shall we do with Jesus?" is to be a daily question, not just a general way to think or a decision made once in our life. Each moment, with every word I speak and decision I make, I am choosing either to embrace Jesus or turn from him.
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