Don't you know?

We are just about to the summit of this Christmas Season, the BIG EVENT, what we've been preparing for and waiting on, anticipation is high, as are emotions...after all, this event doesn't happen every day....in fact, it only happened ONE Day but will, in fact, happen again.  Maybe tonight? Maybe tomorrow?  Don't you know it could be at anytime?  

Jesus came to this earth, Immanuel, God with us, to a stable, to the welcoming arms of a mother and father, to the world.  His time here on earth wasn't long, but the impact of HIS coming, His Life, His ultimate sacrifice of dying on a cross for the sins of this world,  has forever stamped His image on this world and on the hearts of those who choose to believe.  His coming to this stable in Bethlehem was prophesied and documented in the scriptures, fulfilled in a glory filled moment.  

And for a moment in time during this season, eyes of many will look into a stable to see the baby Jesus, swaddled in rags, cradled in straw, the Savior of the World.  Don't you know? He came to be God with us and God in us.   He came to change the world and to change me and you.  He came so to pay the price for our sins, so that we could have the promise of eternity with HIM.  

Don't you know? The BIG EVENT is going to happen soon....sooner than most think or are ready for. Yes, I know...you're ready.  The gifts are wrapped, dinner preparations have been made, stockings are hung by the chimney with care, cookies and milk are in place.  Much preparation for the big day...and I wonder...don't we know...that He is coming again...are we ready?  And I wonder, as we gaze into the open stable and look at the miracle of the birth of this Child, are we changed?  The shepherds who where watching a star and visited by angels, couldn't get to that place fast enough. They had to see for themselves.   Once they saw this Child, they told the whole town what they had seen.  What they saw, changed them.  And they couldn't wait to tell the world.  Don't you know?  We should be just like that.  All the time.  Every day.  

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"  1 Corinthians 3:16

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."  John 15:12-13

What would happen if we lived as image bearers of God?  Would you allow this Christmas Season to become a time of change.  A time to hit the reset button and refocus on what is truly important...to revive and refresh ourselves in the reality of Immanuel, God With Us.  Let's take down the walls of self-righteousness, self-centeredness and selfishness.  Let's begin  to live like the shepherds who have just seen the face of God...and tell the world what we've seen.  Let's begin to love again, loving all others with the love of God...as we bear His image everyplace we go.   

Gaze into the stable...look on the face of God.  

Don't you know?  He's coming again. 

Are you ready?