I'm down visiting my daughter for Christmas and I attended her church this morning. Since it was the last Sunday before Christmas, they made it a family day which meant the children stayed with their parents during the service. As such, there was more noise than usual, but it was good. Family is good. The boys were with us during the service and they were relatively behaved for the most part. We were able to listen to the message. And it was a good message. The pastor was was referencing Matthew 2 and Jesus as the real King of the Jews. It was a really good message.
While he was talking about how we need to focus on the real King and not get caught up in our idols, Maseo wanted to play a game on my phone. I thought it would keep him occupied while we listened to the sermon, so I started up the Angry Birds-Star Wars game. I turned the volume off on my phone, but forgot that when you start a game, that sound is separate from the phone volume… Yes, the pastor is talking about Jesus being King and suddenly the opening notes to Star Wars is heard in the room. Mortified is the word that you would use at this moment. I managed to quickly turn the sound off and the sermon continued and I apologized to the pastor after the service and he laughed. It actually was quite timely he said. He was talking about King Jesus and then this spectacular soundtrack comes on.
I share all of this because it ties in with my devotional this evening. I've shared in previous posts that I'm going through Desiring God's Good News of Great Joy for this Advent season. I wasn't able to read yesterday's devotional until today and it was about how we get so worked up and excited about fairy tales and stories men have made up and yet we aren't in awe and wonder at the actual true story of Jesus Christ. And then I read this:
The space thrillers of our day, like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, can do this great good for us: they can humble us and bring us to repentance, by showing us that we really are capable of some of the wonder and awe and amazement that we so seldom feel when we contemplate the eternal God and the cosmic Christ and a real living contact between them and us in Jesus of Nazareth.
When Jesus said, "For this I have come into this world," he said something as crazy and weird and strange and eerie as any statement in science fiction that you have ever read (John 18:37).
O, how I pray for a breaking forth of the Sprit of God upon me and upon you. I pray for the Holy Spirit to break into my experience in a frightening way, to wake me up to the unimaginable reality of God.
I asked forgiveness this morning for interrupting the service, but this evening I found myself repenting of my lack of awe and amazement at the story of the Incarnation. And what a story it is.
All Things Elda 