Window Dressing…

Window Dressing…

(from December 20, 2008)

As I am writing I can look out my window and enjoy the outside. At this moment there is a gentle snow falling and covering everything with a blanket of white! It is extremely peaceful, but it is also rare for where I live, which is why traveling has become a nightmare.

The result is actually quite funny. For the past week or so, every news station has spent countless hours covering the “deep freeze of ‘08”. When you turn on the television you cannot escape news reporter after news reporter showing videos of people putting chains on their cars or children sliding down “snow covered” hills that in reality have more grass showing than the snow is covering…

Having grown up in Colorado and lived in Nebraska and Kansas, I am simply amazed at how this community deals with a little snow and ice. Blame it on the fact that it rarely happens, blame it on the fact that salt is not used on roads here, or even blame it on the hysteria created by the media. Whatever the reason the result to me is humorous.

Nonetheless, while the landscape is being covered and the snow is slowly piling up, what was out there, just two days before is still there. I just cannot see it any longer, but just because I do not see it any longer, it does not mean it has gone away. Soon enough the snow will melt and what was there will be revealed once again…

There is an easy metaphor here – it is easy for man to dress up the outside and simply cover up the inside. The outside becomes beautiful and others are shown what man wants them to see, but underneath nothing has changed. The covering is simply window dressing…

What is underneath can be beautiful, but it can also be ugly…

My family and I have been practicing many long standing holiday traditions this Christmas season. In fact, last night my wife and I took our girls to visit Santa Claus. The joy of watching my girls light up when Santa arrived made me smile from ear to ear…

As they ran up to him, jumped into his lap, and spoke incessantly to him, Santa just sat there listening intently. Pictures were being snapped and video was being filmed. Before you judge me…I want you to understand that while my girls believe in Santa and the spirit of Christmas…they also believe in Jesus and know that He is why we celebrate Christmas.

The traditions are window dressing…

I stood there and looked at all the people standing in line, with babies, toddlers, and children waiting their turn to see Santa. As I looked in their faces, and the faces of their parents, I wondered how many of them knew why they were there…

How many of them had an inside that glowed with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself, came to earth as a baby, as a servants, as a sacrifice for our sins? How many of them were standing there with an inside that was beautiful…and how many of them were standing there with an inside that was ugly?

You see, the snow outside my window will melt and everyone will once again see what is truly there…One day the decorations will go away and we will see what is truly underneath…One day we will be face to face with our Jesus and all will all what is on the inside!

We will see some beautiful things, but we will also see some ugly things!

This holiday season, go ahead and celebrate, practice traditions, believe in Santa, and give presents. But if you do only one thing, make sure you are not just putting on a beautiful exterior to cover an interior landscape that needs remaking.

Only Jesus can change the inside. Only a life surrendered to Him is beautiful…

Christ is Born (Luke 2:1-7)

1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Christ is the Answer (John 3:16-21)

16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Is He on the inside?

Until next time…

Pastor Barry