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Ready. Or. Not. Christmas is coming…soon! To be sure, the holidays are different this year. Many of us are enduring grief, hardship, and stress. Celebrations require a large measure of sensitivity, caring, compromise, and sacrifice. We may not have much in the way of holiday spirit. But that is exactly why Jesus came.
Jesus did not come because we—the human race—had our act together. He came because we are—individually and collectively—a mess. We are so in need of the Messiah. And His coming is not so unlike the ages-old children’s game of Hide and Seek. The hiders hide. The seeker waits, and then shouts, “Ready or not, here I come!” And then the seeker comes looking….
We may not be ready; or alternatively, we may be hiding in what we think is a very secure place or in a very good disguise. But regardless of our location or circumstances, regardless of how ready we are or how we are doing, we can be absolutely certain that the Seeker is coming for us.
Of course, Hide and Seek is a game, and the coming of the Messiah is anything and everything but a game. The advent of the Messiah is about eternal life and death. But we can learn something important from the game: The glee in which the seeker in the game finds the hiders is a mere shadow of the joy that the eternal Seeker experiences when He seeks and finds the lost or seeks and comforts those who are already His own but are suffering and struggling.
Come, Lord Jesus…!
