Another Look at Jesus

Christmas is always a hard time for a pastor.  Not in the sense you might be thinking, but in the sense of talking about a story that everyone thinks they already know and if you mess with it, they call you the Grinch!  Not only that, but for a few weeks the expectation seems to be that every Sunday School Lesson, Sermon and Devotional that you do be connected in some way to the Christmas story. And if you have extra services around Christmas obviously those need to be connected too!  Praise the Lord that the story does not change and the message is the same yesterday, today and forever.  That does not make it any easier on us pastor's though (do you feel sorry for us yet?)

Perhaps you are like a pastor in this sense.  You go through your Christmas routine year after year.  You get the decorations down around the same time, put them up in the same place they were before.  Shop for presents either early (like you always do) or at the last minute (like you always do).  There is always people who compete to put up the prettiest and brightest decorations and people who frankly just do not care.  Your family does not change, just gets older.  Your fights with said family members do not change.  The stress does not change.  In the midst of all that we call Christmas do you wonder how to stay new and fresh and how to keep Christ at the center.

May I suggest that the answer to my dilemma and yours is the same - look at Jesus.  Though He and His biography is changeless, the wealth of His story and its depth are inexhaustible.  Perhaps that is what we need this Christmas season - more looking at Jesus and less at ourselves.  And perhaps in the looking we will find the joy that is promised, the peace that passes understanding and a desire to tell the old, old story perhaps one more time!