Don’t Miss Jesus
Dear Friends and Family of Hilton Baptist Church,
Have you ever had the frustrating experience when you missed something exciting or important? You may be outside on a summer night stargazing with friends and the one moment you look away someone says “Wow! Did you see that shooting star?!” Ugh…you just missed it.
Perhaps the best play of the football game occurred when you stepped away for thirty seconds to let the dog out. Maybe you came home from running an errand and are told “Oh, you just missed so-and-so who stopped by to see us. They left a few minutes ago.”
Knowing that we missed out on something important or exciting can be a frustrating experience. At Christmas we are reminded that Jesus is “Immanuel” which means ‘God with us’. Jesus is always with us, but we have a tendency to miss him. I read this recently and I found it to be both endearing and insightful.
“A four-year old girl was sitting with her father when she said, ‘Daddy, God is everywhere, isn’t He?’ Her father responded ‘Yes. God is everywhere.’ ‘Is God a spirit?’ asked the girl. ‘Yes, God is a spirit’ answered her father. ‘We can’t see spirits, can we?’ the girl inquired. ‘No, we cannot’ her father replied. The little girl thought for a moment and said, ‘Well Daddy, what I don’t understand is, if God is everywhere and we can’t see God; how come we aren’t bumping into Him all the time?’ The tragedy is that we are constantly bumping into God, but we don’t realize it.”
( Rogne, David G. Advent Services. Abingdon Press. Nashville, TN. 2007. Pg. 5)
How easy it is for us to miss God! I wonder if we miss God not because we are not looking but rather, we bump into Him so often that we simply do not recognize Him anymore? That beautiful sunrise I saw the other morning, was that God bumping into me? Did I bump into God when that nice person helped me at Wegmans? When I was griping recently and my friend listened with grace, was that a God bump?
Ironically the season of Christmas is a time when it should be easy to bump into Jesus, but we can be so busy and stressed that we miss him. When that moment passes, we may think to ourselves “Ugh! I think that was Jesus and I just missed him!”
My friends, slow down, be still and be present. Look for Jesus in the moment. Look for Jesus in the moments when you have an opportunity to help someone. Look for Jesus in the moments with friends and family. Look for Jesus in the moments when the lights on the tree are twinkling. Look for Jesus in the moments you feel that Christmas spirit during a worship service.
This December, don’t miss the moments when you might bump into Jesus.
Merry Christmas to all of you,
Dan & Karen
Categories: Pastors Message