Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

Read Mark 11:1-7.

... "The Lord has need of it ...."
 (Mark 11:3b)

Reflection:

How do you like Christmas shopping?
Are you looking forward to playing
"chicken" for that elusive parking spot?
Are you excited about your chance to
push your way through the crowded
aisles? Do you get a thrill out of arm
wrestling for that last box on the shelf?

Wouldn't it be great just once to be an
important person? Imagine walking
down an aisle and watching people
step aside to let you pass, or standing
in front of an empty shelf and having
someone hand you that must-have
present you want to give your kids.
Best of all, imagine everyone motioning
you to the front of the line at the checkout!

On that first Christmas when God chose
to send His Son into our world as a tiny
baby, we might have expected Him to
choose an important family. Perhaps it
would be the Jewish high priest, the ruler
of the Jews, or even the Roman Emperor
himself. Instead, the most important
person ever born lived as the obscure
Son of Joseph and Mary-two very
ordinary and unimportant parents.

That's how Christmas can transform us.
God's only Son became unimportant in
the world's eyes to make you and me
important in God's eyes. He credits His
perfect life to us as if we were the perfect
ones. Then He took all our failures, faults
and sins on Himself and suffered and died
in our place on the cross to free us from
God's wrath.

The hustle and bustle of Christmas
shopping may make you feel unimportant,
but this Christmas the birth of the Christ
Child shows just how important you are
to God.

PRAYER:

 Lord, thank You for becoming unimportant
in the world's eyes to make me important
in God's eyes. Transform my view of You
and of myself this Christmas. Amen.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)