Something to Give

I feel for the drummer boy.  We set him up on a pedestal, quaint and pure.  I suppose it refreshes our technological action packed world, the simplicity of his drum.  But there's nothing worse than a season of giving without the resources to give.  What's the boy to do?  

Mary, desperate for privacy, and Joseph, at a loss for a solution, end up in a shelter for animals.  I wonder how Joseph felt, a man unable to provide.  What a shameful dilemma.  Had he failed to make arrangements with his long lost relatives?   Did he not realize how crowded the motels would be?  Would no one take them in, not even a stranger?

We know it was no mistake.  The plan, that God made flesh would come by humble means, was predicted years and years before. 

As Christmas is upon us, preparation is paramount.  I thought I was done.  Finished.  No more gifts to purchase, but I was mistaken.  One sock falls short of its full capacity, and today I join the ranks of those last minute shoppers.  However, the momentum intensifies as the cleaning wraps up, the last groceries are bought, and the cooking begins.  With all this preparation who has energy left for Christmas?

Yesterday morning I ran smack dab into Hebrews 8:3 which stopped me in my tracks, "Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer."  Jesus needed something to offer?!  Are you kidding me?  The One who created the heavens and the earth is lacking a gift?  In a sense, yes, for we did not need the riches of heaven and earth.  What we needed was a Rescuer, and that would require God made into human flesh, a sacrifice of humility, and later a sacrifice of suffering to the death.  Only such a gift could redeem us from our plight.

At times I wonder why we do what we do.  Why is so much energy expended at Christmas?   The search for just the right gift, the wrapping, the decorating, the programs, the cleaning and rearranging of furniture to fit a tree, and now in these last days before the day, there is the cooking.  All this preparation and for what end?  Simply put, a gift.  For without the sacrifice of preparation our hands remain empty; we have nothing to give, not a single gift.  But love says it is worth it all. 

The drummer boy had it right.  Though he had nothing, he brought everything, the offering of his talent and the surrender of his life to the One who is worthy, Jesus the Lamb of God.  With every ba rum pa pah pum, beat the throbbing of a heart in worship of his king.  Because that's what Christmas is all about.

Come, let us adore Him.