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I’ll never forget the Christmas my brother and I “discovered” Santa. We had been snuggled tightly into our beds, wide awake, but sugarplum-dreaming nonetheless. As we struggled to harness sleep, we heard a jingling, a faint “Ho, ho, ho!”, and felt the hands of my parents gently nudging us out of bed. We were going to spy on Santa! We crept down the hall and peered into the living room. Sure enough, there was a jolly old man in a red and white suit, snowy beard streaming, stuffing trinkets into our stockings and placing gifts beneath the tree. I don’t think I even paid any attention to what he was giving us because I was so enraptured in the fact that he was “real”. All my doubts and fears were suddenly relieved as I experienced his presence in my home. In retrospect, the comfort of that “truth” was fleeting. I have come to experience another, infinitely more important Christmas Truth since then. For many, many years I knew the story of Christmas, but the reality of Christ brought no comfort because I hadn’t experienced it myself. I hadn’t experienced Him. But as a true believer – a follower of Christ, I experience and participate in the Father’s love, the Holy Spirit’s voice, and the hope of the Son every day. All my doubts about the legitimacy of the infamous story of a God-man descending to earth through the womb of a virgin, born in a stable, visited by angels, shepherds, and wise men have been completely demolished by experiencing His presence. He is truth and His presence in my life – though seen with my “spiritual eyes”, not my physical ones (others have been able to see Him transforming me with their physical eyes) – is an absolute reality. What I thought I had for that moment I saw Santa was an assurance that what I believed was real (an assurance that later faded with knowledge). I didn’t even know I needed that assurance, but oh how I craved proof of the unseen! So it is with our faith in Jesus Christ. The difference is that the assurance we have when we see Him, only increases with knowledge. The apostle Paul, who knew first-hand how desperately we humans need to experience something before we can fully believe it calls this a “full assurance of faith”. In Hebrews 10, he explains how Jesus Christ, having died, paying the penalty for our sins, and being resurrected, has made it possible for us to experience God – to see Him face-to-face. We no longer have to experience a hollow hope that our faith is real. We can know for certain that He in whom we hope and believe is real because He has fulfilled every promise of God and made it possible to experience Him ourselves. All we have to do is ask and seek, and we will find and see. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. - Hebrews 10:19–23 Most Gracious Heavenly Father, What a gift you have given us – the ability to experience Your presence. What mercy you have lavished upon us – that we have been invited to see You! Lord, I pray for those whose lives are lacking the reality of You – for those who believe without experiencing – that they would seek You with all their hearts, and that You would be found by them. Oh that each one of us would seek You, find You, and remain in You! Open the eyes of our hearts that we may see You clearly and turn our lives upside-down as only You can. How we crave truth! How we need something real! Father, You are truth and can give us what we need. Please make us wise enough to ask. To Jesus Christ be the glory forever. Amen. |
