12-29-23-ENG.

"Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "

Luke 2:11 
THE RIGHT IDEA

Read It: Luke 2:8-20
The great artist Rembrandt was one of the many artists who attempted to portray the scene in Bethlehem's manger. But nobody did it better than the Dutchman. His nativity scene focuses your attention exclusively on the baby in the manger. Rembrandt captured the biblical idea by painting ing a shaft of light so that it fell on the baby Jesus and illuminated Him alone. Rembrandt put the other figures in the painting, but he wrapped them in the shadows so that all the adoration goes to Jesus. Centering all the attention on Jesus is just what God the Father had in mind that first Christmas night. We'll see tomorrow that the magi were only interested in worshiping Jesus. And we know from this famous story in Luke 2 that the shepherds had the right idea too. When I try to picture a scene like the one described in verses 8-14, I can see why people want to become artists and try to capture moments like this on canvas. This is Christmas card stuff: a great choir of angels filling the sky while a band of shepherds look up in terrified wonder. See, you have to like these shepherds, because they caught on right away and got in the spirit of this thing. They wanted to worship this new King too, so they went running off to Bethlehem with real joy and anticipation ipation in their hearts. What I like about these men is that ordinarily they had little to get excited about. Shepherds in that day were a pretty despised group. They were poor. Their occupation was on the bottom rung of the career ladder.

Now they didn't get excited that first Christmas because they thought they were going to get some presents. They didn't get pumped to go see baby Jesus because they heard the manger was all lit up with pretty lights. And they weren't looking for an overweight man in a red suit. They just wanted to worship their Messiah. There's nothing wrong with pretty lights. Ornaments are fine. But if all we had this Christmas was Jesus, would it be enough to send us jumping ing for joy? I hope so. I pray it would. Think About It If you can't get excited about Jesus this Christmas, better check your spiritual pulse.