He’s Still the Reason for the Season.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“One more powerful than I will come,
the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to unite….”
Luke 3:16, New International Version

John the Baptist would not revel in the lime-light.  His was a ministry of preparing the way for the Way—Jesus the Christ.  People came to see and hear him and he pointed them to Jesus.

Jesus Mattered Most to John.

Jesus was the Reason for the season of human history that found John preaching and Baptizing in the Judean wilderness.  John knew it.

The wrapping paper is in the recycle bin.  Many presents have been put away.  The Christmas Tree still stands, but without its adornment of bright packages.  Perhaps a train still roams a tight circle about the base of the tree.  These images can sometimes create a sense of loss for me, I’ll admit.  That’s why I, and perhaps you today as well, need the reminder from our ancient brother and father in faith, John.  Jesus Matters Most.

We are still smack in the middle of the marvelous season celebrating the wonder of the Incarnation—the enfleshing of God himself in the person of Jesus the Christ.  He is the focus, he Matters Most to us.

What matters most to Jesus, do you think?  I think it’s you.  And me.  And everyone else.  He came for us.  He came because of our desperate need of salvation and restoration.  That need is made even more desperate by humankind’s lack of knowledge of the need in the first place.  Still, Jesus came in the miracle of the Incarnation and Birth.  Because we matter most to him.

Hark, of whom did the ‘Herald Angels’ sing?  Who sings to us, ‘From Heaven Above to Earth I Come’?  What ‘Rose’ is Blooming?  O, what happens in that ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’?  Who is Away in that Manger?  What Child Is This?  Jesus Matters Most.

We matter most to Jesus.  Jesus Matters Most to us.  It’s not a mantra.  It’s a profession of faith.

Text and picture, copyright Don Schatz.