Not long ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time at the 911 Memorial in New York City. At night, it’s a powerful memorial of light, deep pools with waterfalls awash in light. Alone the edges of the pools the names of the people who died are cut into a metal shelf. The light of the waterfalls shines through each name.  

One of those names is Harry Ramos.  He worked at May Davis and his office was in the World Trade Center, tower two. Right from the beginning, Ramos was helping other people find their way to safety. It was total pandemonium. Ramos and some of his associates began the long descent from the 87th floor to safety. On the 53rd floor they came across a heavyset man whose legs just would not move anymore.

One of Ramos’ associates paused momentarily with the man, but then went ahead to try to get help. Ramos and another colleague were able to get him as far as the 44th floor. But the last set of elevators would not work. So back to the stairs. They were on the 36th floor when the first tower collapsed. Finally in desperation the heavyset man said, I can’t do it anymore. Firemen were screaming at the men to get out. The two men were faced with a dilemma: to stay with the man and risk it all or to leave him and escape. One man left. Ramos said to the heavyset man, I’m not going to leave you. A few minutes later the two men met their death in tower two.

An incredible story that speaks to us on so many different levels, servant-hearted values like courage and sacrifice, faith and compassion. But beyond that it tells the story of the dilemma we all face. In life we may often feel like we are alone…traveling the stairs on our own…or we notice people who are alone and there is something at our core that longs for community, for companionship, even though that connection can be risky and painful. On the one hand, I want to connect with others, but at what price? Companionship is is risky and potentially quite painful. On the other hand, I want to stay safe, unaffected by others, but at what price? Loneliness is a cancer. 

Perhaps we need to be reminded that a priceless gift always carries a cost.  Perhaps we need to be reminded that some gifts are of such great value…that one might even give their life to give the gift.  Isn’t that part of the message of Christmas? That Jesus was willing to give his life so that you wouldn’t have to die alone?

Never more alone.  “His name shall be called Immanuel, which means God is with us.” Never more alone.

Ponder that today.  No matter what you go through, never alone. No matter how friends may fail you or even betray you, never alone. No matter the loss or the cost, nor the pain or the problems; no matter how dark the night seems, you are never alone. Christ has come.  

As you ponder that, perhaps you might join the One and make a difference in someone’s life by simple sitting by them on the stairs of life, so that they need not sit alone.

Never alone.  He came. God with  us. Never more alone.

For 27 years, a man known only as Secret Santa roamed the city streets of our nation every December quietly giving people money. Most often he was found in Kansas City, but in 2001, after the terrorist attacks, he went to New York. In 2002, he was in Washington, D.C., in the neighborhoods victimized by the serial snipers. In 2003, it was a San Diego devastated by wildfires. In 2004 and 2005, it was neighborhoods devastated by hurricanes in Florida and Mississippi.

He started with $5 and $10 bills. But as his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa was handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. Through 27 years of Decembers, he gave away over $1.3 million.

About six years ago, he found out he had cancer, weakened from chemotherapy and armed with a desire to pass on his belief in random kindness, Secret Santa decided it was time to reveal his identity. Larry Stewart, grew up in poverty, raised by elderly grandparents, who lived on $33 a month. They heated water on the stove for baths and used an outhouse. After he left home and college, he found himself out of work in 1971. After sleeping in his car for eight nights and not eating for two days, Stewart went to the Dixie Diner in Houston, Miss., and ordered breakfast. When the bill came, he acted as if he’d lost his wallet. The diner owner came to him. “You must have dropped this,” the owner said, slipping a $20 bill into the young man’s hand. 

He paid, pushed his car to the gas station, and left town. But on his way out of town, he prayed a promise. He said, “Thank you Lord and if you ever put me in a position to help other people I will do it.” In 1977 the company he started failed. “I was a failure in business. I was a failure as a husband and as a father,” he remembers thinking. He got into his car with a handgun and thought about robbing a store. But he stopped, went home and got a call from his brother-in-law, offering him money to tide him over.

In 1979, for the 2nd year in a row he was fired just days before Christmas, and in his own words, “I was wallowing in self-pity when I learned that giving returned an inexplicable joy. I was at a food drive-in the day I got fired, nursing my wounds. It was cold and this car hop didn’t have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She’s out there in this cold making nickels and dimes.’ I gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.  And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.”‘

Stewart was deeply touched. He went to the bank that day, took out $200 and drove around looking for people who could use a lift. That was his “Christmas present to himself.” Eventually, he started another company, became a financial success and gave millions to worthy non-profits, but Christmas was always his special time. Every December after that Christmas in 1979, he hit the streets visiting coin laundries, thrift stores, barbershops and diners. “If you’re driving through a parking lot, for example,” he once said, “and you see a lady trying to stuff five kids into an old beat-up rusty car, then it’s a no-brainer.”  

Why does he do it? What does he get out of it? “I see the smiles and looks of hopelessness turn to looks of hope in an instant,” he says. “After all, isn’t that what we were put here on Earth for, to help one another?” Before he started this role as a Secret Santa, Stewart says, “I had not found my purpose. Part of my daily prayer was, ‘Lord lift me up and let me be a better witness to you and for you and somehow reach more people.’ I had no idea this is what He had in mind.” 

I want to challenge you to take the Larry Stewart challenge. Look for an opportunity to give $2o or more to someone that you see in need.  Now go out and buy something for yourself.  Which act brings you the most joy? That act is near to the heart of Christmas.

You may not realize this but Christ is not Jesus last name.  Christ was a word in Jesus day which referred to the ONE, the anointed one, the legendary one, the one of prophecy, the ONE King.  Sometimes we forget the incredible honor that we have on this side of Christmas.  We know the name of the Christ.  His name is Jesus.  We know the name.  

The Old Testament is filled with prophecies pointing us toward Christ, but we never knew the name. Abraham was called the friend of God, but he never knew the name. Moses was so close to God that they spoke face to face as a friend speaks to a friend, but God never told him the name. God called King David, “a man after my own heart.”  You might think David would’ve been given the name.  But he never knew the name. The prophet Micah was told he would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) but he never new the name. 

Perhaps the prophet Isaiah came the closest. He knew that He would be a light which would bring joy. He knew that He would suffer for us and be like a lamb led to slaughter. He knew that He would be born as a child. In fact He knew that He would be born from a virgin. And he almost got the name. “Behold the virgin shall conceive,” Isaiah said, “and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Wait a minute, Immanuel simply means “God with us.” We knew that Isaiah.  Try again. And so he tried again. “For unto us a child will be born and the government will be upon his shoulders and his name will be called, ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.'” 

Not even Isaiah knew the name. But we… WE KNOW THE NAME.

His name…is JESUS.  JESUS is the name above all other names and we know that name.  Let me ask you, do you love his name? You know some people will tattoo the name of the person they love on their arm. “MOM”  What if you tattooed “Amy” but then married “Julie?” When you were young…and in love…you would doodle that guy’s name all over your notebooks. When my daughters were in high school, I would look through their notebooks to see who’s names they were doodling… so I could pray for him. :)

Did you ever doodle the name of Jesus in your notebooks?

As you got older you found that loving someone might mean defending their name. Maybe you had a brother or sister that you thought you hated, until you heard someone use their name in vain, and then stuff inside your heart just overflowed and you want to battle for their name. Did you ever go to battle Jesus’ name? Did you ever look up and gently ask someone to stop using Jesus name as a swear word?

And then one day you fell in love…this was it, the person you were going to marry, and we learned when we fell in love that we might love some one so much that we would make their name our own name. Or maybe you’ve gone out and found children that you loved so much, you gave them your name.

Do you love his name?

Is that all we talk about? Not in some push-my-religion-on-others kind of way, but have you have found yourself in a season when you just could not stop talking about Jesus?  Seems like that should occur even more at Christmas? Do I love the name of Jesus?

This is the Christmas message, “The Christ has come and his name is Jesus.” Paul was a man who understood the one message,he said things like,  

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…  (Philippians 3:8-9)

Christmas really isn’t Christmas without his name.  Jesus.  Doodle that today.

One of my favorite Christmas verses is found in a much loved psalm.  In Psalm 23:1, David writes, “The Lord is my shepherd; I will lack nothing.” If we want to go back to the true Christmas story, I think two words we should hold in our hearts are…No Lack. 

Now there’s a Xmas banner that will strike fear in the heart of the retail sector. It does a 180 against the groove of a consumer oriented culture. And we are a culture of consumers. We live in a country that has built, 16 1/2 sq ft of mall space for every man, woman and child in the country today. Last year the Minneapolis Mall of America had more visitors than the Grand Ole Opry, the Grand Canyon, and Disneyland combined. This year we are expected to spend around $600 Billion on Christmas (yes that’s a b, not an m). Which is understandable since the average american child will see over 40,000 TV ads a year…every one designed to shape a heart that says, “I want…” Studies have shown that babies as young as six months are already forming mental images of corporate brands and logos.  By age three, 20% of kids request brand name products. 

This year we are expected to spend around 600 billion dollars on Christmas. 77% of America self-classify as Christian. 25-30% self-classify as born-again Christians. I’m not guessing we spend too much less than anyone else…we are after all part of the average.  So our share of Christmas is $150 Billion to $462 Billion.  What a difference in the world we could make if we just saw Christmas through different eyes.

If the Lord is my Shepherd…I will lack nothing. If I have Jesus, I have everything I need. Psalm 23 is the trump card to every ad ever created.

And I know the struggle, as a parent I’ve struggled with this feeling inside that I don’t want my kids to be disappointed…by a smaller Christmas…. as tho less stuff could shrink the true Christmas.  You know what’s difficult with this is that one of the most Godly parts of Christmas is gifts, giving, grace. When we give gifts, not so much exchange gifts, but give gifts undeserved, with meaning and thought and grace, we are so close to the true story of Christmas.

The dangerous detour of Christmas is not in giving gifts… the dangerous detour of Christmas is in wanting stuff, stuff that does not bring life.  The true Christmas story is about the moment in time when Jesus came and brought all we need for life.  

Every year at Calvary we encourage everyone to give ONE% of their annual income to serve kids in need around the world.  It’s what we are talking about when we say, “Join the One.”  It’s not $150 Billion, but it’s a start and it makes a difference.  It really does. In fact it is by far my favorite part of Christmas.

In 1949 it was the Christmas song of the year over 2 million records were sold.  Today it is still one of the the highest selling Christmas carols at ~25 million sold.  It started as an Montgomery Wards marketing gimmick.  In 1939 advertising executive Robert May was asked to write a poem that could be given away to children who came to the store to visit Santa.  

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” came from his pen, was put in booklet form, and more than 2.5 million copies were handed out by department store Santa’s.  By 1946 the number had grown to 6 million copies given away.  In 1949, May’s brother-in-law Johnny Marks, wrote music to go with the words and it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry (after it was turned down by Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore). And since that time, Rudolph has “gone down in history” (forgive me) as one of the most popular of Christmas songs.

So here is my question, “What is it about this simple song that has made it so popular?  Is it the catchy tune? Probably not, May and Marks were not exactly Rogers and Hammerstein! Perhaps it’s the innocence and courage of Rudolph, the anti-hero of the story.  Could be, but I think what really grabs us at Christmas is the offer of grace that leads to someone making a difference in the world.  Making a difference in the world is part of the heart of Christmas.

The real beauty of the story is the grace offered by Santa which leads to Rudolph’s opportunity to matter for others. By grace, Santa chooses Rudolph despite the fact that he’s a clear outsider, a reject with a defect, that disqualified him from the companionship found in playing reindeer games. But whom did Santa choose when when the fog rolled in? That’s right, the little reindeer with the shiny red nose. His defect became an avenue through which others were helped and Santa’s mission was accomplished.

There are rejects with defects all over the Christmas story…from lowly shepherds to a pregnant, unmarried teenager, to a baby born in the armpit of a nation under siege. But look at what God did through rejects with defects…  So here is my challenge, look around you, who are the Rudolph’s in your life?  What would it look like for you to show them the gift of grace?  Join the One who gives grace and you will make a difference in the world.

Maybe you’ve heard the news, perhaps you even watched 60 Minutes’ Amazon Infomercial last Sunday night, soon (as in less than a decade) drones may be delivering Amazon packages to your doorstep…hopefully your packages, within 30 minutes of your order. I guess it’s Amazon’s goal to become the Domino’s delivery of the everything-other-than-pizza world, because being an Amazon Prime member with two-day shipping on more stuff than I can fit in my house, wasn’t good enough.

There’s no doubt that Jeff Bezos knows that the one and only thing the American public does not want…is waiting.

And yet here we are in the midst of the Advent Season…a season where Christians around the world celebrate waiting, or at least honor the concept of waiting.  It’s a season where we could be reminded that if time is our most valuable commodity, then something we can get in 30 minutes may not be worth getting.  Have you noticed lately that one of the difficulties in getting someone a Christmas present is the shrinking amount of time between someone expressing a desire for something and when they just go ahead and get it?  Why wait for Christmas?  I’m an Amazon Prime member.

Advent reminds us that waiting for something of great value is worth our time.  But — here is the epiphany in the story — Advent also reminds us that there are some things of great value for which we no longer need to wait.  For example:

1 – Christ has come. We are on the other side of what Paul calls “the mystery of the gospel.”  On the far side of Christ, they waited for the Messiah.  On our side, He has come. He has broken down the walls which kept us from God and each other. He has shown us the way and opened the door to life.  You no longer need to wait; he’s here.  Now, if anything, He waits for you.

2 – The Holy Spirit has come. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his followers to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, to wait for the power to become disciples to could turn the world upside down.  We don’t have to wait for this promise.  He is now available.

3 – The Kingdom of God has come. This was the Christmas message and Jesus’ message. The Kingdom of God is here. It has arrived. It is in your midst. The Kingdom is not a place, it’s a person. It’s not a realm, it’s a reign. You can’t find it on a map, it’s found everywhere people surrender to and live for the King.

Now do not hear what I’m not saying. Even though the waiting is over, the Kingdom of God is not all that big on instant, easy gratification.  There is a “now” to the Kingdom of God, but there is also a “not yet.”  The Kingdom of God is less about instant gratification and more about little babies that take decades to develop and harvests that take the hard work of planting, weeding and gathering.

There are no drones, nor are there 30 minute guarantees.  There is risk and sacrifice and joy that cannot be contained in a package. All I’m saying is that you don’t have to wait to start the journey.

Here is my Christmas challenge for today.  Read the Gospels…yes all four…not all at once, just sometime this Christmas season.  And as you read ask God to show you your next step on this journey of joining the one to make a difference in the world.

Most of you realize this, but just in case you missed it. We are in the midst of a battle. The Battle for Christmas.  This battle has been raging for years or centuries depending on who is writing the story.  I’ve been keeping track.  

In the last 5-10 years, evidence of this battle has been documented by The American Family Association who, one year analyzed over 280 pages of advertising in a couple of Memphis area newspapers to find that Christmas was rarely mentioned. Rather than mentioning Christmas advertising substituted the term holiday 59x’s instead. In addition, I heard from the friend of an acquaintance that school bus drivers in Maine were banned from leading Christmas carols and in Illinois and you probably heard about the children at a school in Oregon who were allowed to bring Christmas cards to hand out to their friends as long as they don’t mention Jesus.  

But don’t worry, the battle is not one sided.  One year it was reported by an unnamed organization that at least 1,500 lawyers had volunteered to sue any town that tried to keep nativity scenes out of its holiday displays and about 8,000 public school teachers stood ready to report any principle who removed Silent Night from the choir program. A few years ago Jennifer Giroux, co-founded Operation: Just Say “Merry Christmas.” Her group produced red and green rubber wristbands, emblazoned with the slogan “Just say ‘Merry Christmas.” The campaign went viral and she ended up selling around 60,000 bracelets at $2 a pop.  I’m guessing the profits went to finance the troops on the frontlines.

Then of course there was my favorite. In 2010, one of the largest “Baptist” churches in the country started the website, “Grinchalert.com” and encouraged their people to submit the names of local businesses that didn’t call the holiday Christmas.  Those names were then put on the “naughty list.”  Some question as to who the Grinch was though.

Sorry for the vague details and slight sarcasm…but it feels a little bit like young boys playing battlefield.  On the other hand, let me be perfectly clear. I do believe that there is a battle for Christmas. I just don’t think the battle has much to do with Happy Holidays or Nativity Scenes filled with Santa’s displayed in public places. 

When I think back to that first Christmas. “Merry Christmas” was not the greeting of choice. There were no Christmas Trees or Holiday Parties. No wreaths or nativity scenes — well except for one. But Jesus was not front and center in the public square. In fact hundreds of babies in Bethlehem were killed to keep Christ of Christmas.  And yet nothing could keep Christ out of the world. And the Christmas spirit was so pure, so focused, so intense that it spread everywhere.

The battle for Christmas is the battle that distracts us from Christ with promises of much and many.  It’s the battle that dulls our wonder and turns our gaze to the malls.  It’s the battle between presents and presence. It’s the battle for the heart of the Gospel.

How do we win that battle?  We seek Christ and we open our hands to risk more to make a difference in the world.  We open our hearts and humbly echo the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus when the angel told her she would give birth to the Christ.  She said, “Let it be to me as you have said.”

Join the One and make a difference in the world. That’s the battle of Christmas.

Christmas is a season of lights.  Yesterday I missed my daily Christmas-series post because I spent the day in NYC with Lynn, Sarah (my wife and daughter), Joseph and David (two church leaders from Myanmar).  From the lights of the Rockefeller Christmas tree to the lights of the Bryant Park Christmas market to the garish lights of Times Square to the haunting lights of the 9-11 Memorial, the day was awash with light.

It brought to mind these Christmas words, one a foretelling of Christmas, the other a report on Christmas.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.  Isaiah 9:2

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:4-5

In the last blog post on Pondering Christmas I shared the idea of some memory aids that will help us ponder Christmas in the hope that our hearts will take on the texture of Christmas, not the Santa-consumer-childish Christmas, but the wonder-filled, grace-giving, hell-bashing Christmas.  The first memory aid was Christmas Cards.  The second is Christmas Lights.

If there is one part of the whole Christmas culture that I love, it’s the lights. Yes I complain about putting them up and I’m slow to take them down…but I love the lights.  Lights remind me of the “why” of Christmas.  The light of the world came because the world was dark.

Can I give you some Christmas thoughts to ponder when you see Christmas lights this year?

– Darkness cannot overcome light.  Some of you reading this are going through a dark time. You might even feel like you were sucker-punched by God, but no matter how dark your world seems to be at the moment, darkness cannot overcome the light.  Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light.  It has no power on its own; it is defined by absence.  Have you let Jesus shine in your life?.

– Every light (life) makes a difference, no matter how small.  Jesus was a bright light.  No light could ever be brighter, but I wonder if he came as a baby, who became a man with few visible resources, who ended up dying a horrendous death, as a reminder that even just one life (light) can make a difference.  One life (light) can make a difference and when it is filled with the light of the world, the most natural thing in the world to do is to shine.  Isn’t that part of the message of Nelson Mandela’s life?  Any life lived in the light can make a difference in a dark world.

Last night I went to the 9-11 memorial for the very first time.  I went with my family to the site on the Thanksgiving after the attack, but I had never been to the memorial. I didn’t really expect to make it in this time, because the last time I was there you needed passes days in advance. We walked up to the site at 4:55, with no passes, to find that the entrance closes at 5pm and we could pick up our pass right there.  With minutes to spare we made it in.

The memorial–especially at night–is all about light and darkness.  Waterfalls awash in light fall into pools filled with shadows.  But what struck me the most were the names.  Surrounding the pools are metal plates with the names of the lives lost cut into the plate. At night, the light of the pool shines up through the names.  It led me to pray.  “Lord shine your light through my life into the darkness of the world around me.  Let me be a light.”  

That’s my Christmas Challenge.  If you want to “Join the One” for an unforgettable Christmas; Ponder the light.  Seek to be a light.

Join the One. That’s the theme for this Christmas blog series.  If we want to experience a soul-satisfying Christmas, we need to join Christ…focus on Christ…ponder Christ…live and give and love like Christ.  We need our hearts to take on the texture of Christmas.  

Luke 2:1-19 is one of the most well-worn tellings of the Christmas story.  Luke’s description of Christmas has all the traditional pictures, pregnant Mary, swaddling clothes and a manger. There are shepherds with their sheep and angels with their song…and of course little baby Jesus.  It closes with these words, “But Mary treasured up all this things, pondering them in her heart.” The events of the day were her treasure and she thought about them often.

Have you ever noticed that what we think about most, begins to shape the texture of our hearts? Think about all that could go wrong and our hearts take on the texture of worry or fear.  Fill my mind with myself and my heart takes on the texture of entitlement and pride. Fill my mind with a person and my heart begins to be filled with that person.  Fill my mind with my job and my heart takes on the texture of work.  Think about this, “Mary’s heart began to take on the texture of Christmas.”

What would it look like for your heart to take on the texture of Christmas? Now let me qualify that…the texture of Christmas has nothing to do with Black Friday, Santa, or Turkey.  I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Black Friday, Santa or Turkey. (Well maybe I’m saying there is something wrong with Black Friday.) I’m simply saying that if the Friday after Thanksgiving wasn’t black, Santa was a myth, and turkeys were extinct, we could still celebrate Christmas.

What is the texture of Christmas? Today and tomorrow I’ll give you a few memory aids to help you ponder Christmas so often that Christmas begins to shape the texture of your heart.  Here is the first one.

Christmas Cards: In the next few days you may start to send or receive Christmas Cards.  Someone will sit down and go through the people they know and make a list.  They will make a list of the friends who will get a card.  If you get a card, you made it on their friendship list.

Thank God for friends, but my challenge goes beyond that.  Before you put that card in the Christmas card basket, I want you to hold it for just a moment and say this, “Christmas means that I’m on God’s friendship list.”

The apostle John lets us know that if we open our hearts up to Jesus, that Jesus considers us his friends.  Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends… If you follow my ways…no longer do I call you servants, but I call you my friend.” (John 15:12-17)

You are on God’s friendship list. Do you know what that means?  God knows your name and your address. You are not forgotten. The best human friend you have is flawed, but you have a friend who will never fail you; a friend who knows the truth, will tell you the truth, but will never reject you; a friend who will always have time for you and will come alongside you when you feel overwhelmed. That’s the message of Christmas.  You are not alone…God is with you.

Join the One.  That is our Christmas season theme this year.  What will it take for us to join Christ for the most soul-satisfying Christmas we could experience. Today’s thought comes from a classic Christmas movie.  Let me be completely honest with you, my favorite Christmas movie of all time is not “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Frosty the Snowman” or anything that you can find on Hallmark. The best all time Christmas movie is “Elf.”  Let me also clarify, that in my world, it’s been all downhill for Will Ferrell since “Elf.”

But a half dozen years ago, Ferrell was in a deeply theological movie (“Talledega Nights”) about a race car drive by the name of Ricky Bobby.  Now I’m not suggesting you go see this move, the only high point was the theological scene.  This scene was a reminder of something we can easily forget at Christmas.

In this movie, Ricky is not exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but at one point in the film, Ricky Bobby prays.  We don’t see many people praying in movies today, and this was no happy holidays generic prayer, it was a prayer in Jesus’ name. Ricky Bobby is sitting down with his family to pray before the meal, and his prayer goes like this…

Dear Tiny Baby Jesus in Your tiny baby crib, with your golden fleece diapers, with Your tiny little hands and feet, watching Your tiny little Einstein Baby Development videos… thank you for this bountiful harvest of Domino’s Pizza and Taco-Bell… (and he continues on to talk about all the things he is thankful for, like his two sons Texas and Walker Ranger and then he ends with something like) and Xmas Baby Jesus, please use Your tiny little superpowers to keep me winning on the racetrack. Amen.

Because even if he is baby Christmas Jesus, if he can’t get us the stuff we want, what’s the point, right? In the middle of it all, Ricky’s wife, who is marginally more intellectual than Ricky, interrupted his prayer with, “Hey Sweetie, you know Jesus did grow up. I don’t think you are supposed to pray to the little Baby Jesus, because He grew up and became a man, and I think you’re supposed to pray to Grownup Jesus.”  To which Ricky Bobby replies,

“I don’t want to pray to that Jesus. I like praying to the little Baby Jesus, because it makes me feel good just to think about Him being a tiny infant. So when you’re praying, you can pray to the Grownup Jesus, or the Teenage Jesus, or the Bearded Jesus, or whomever you want to, but I like Christmas Jesus.”

I think a lot of people like little baby Jesus and Christmas is our annual opportunity to grab this sweet cuddly baby Jesus who isn’t old enough to know our minds, or strong enough to change our ways, or holy enough to convict our hearts. But I want to suggest to you that we will never truly join Christ for Christmas, if we don’t let the baby grow up.

As Isaiah the prophet looked down through the centuries, he described the first Christmas with those ancient words that have been read for thousands of years, Isaiah 9:6-7, “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” From child to son to Prince of Peace, Isaiah lets us know that the baby will grow up. 

What makes Christmas, truly awesome, full of wonder and joy, expectantly hopeful; what makes Christmas all it could be is the rest of the story. The baby grew up to divide history, change the world, and love us whole.

Here is my challenge, just pray this prayer whenever you think of Christmas:

Jesus, be huge in my life and grow large in my heart.