Christmas greetings to all of you. I hope your preparations for Christmas are nearly made and full of wonderful things.
For myself, I haven’t done much. The weather has been such that I have elected to stay home where I am warm and comfortable. I have reached a point in life where no one expects me to entertain, shop, or even to party, so I don’t. I am very happy staying in my warm house and having folks come here. Last night, Jackie came with the three little ones and we made peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses in their middles. The little girls rolled the dough to death and then happily unwrapped kisses to plop in the center of each hot cookie. Colton just perched on my lap and rode around the house with me on my chair. He got on and he got off two million times and then he would hold up those little arms to me one more time. I am just glad that I can still lift him back up. I got a good upper body workout last night!
This week of Advent the theme is “redemption”. Redemption is kind of an old-fashioned word that is not used too much today except in religious circles. Still, it is a word that we still need. when we do something wrong, I think we all agree that justice demands that we pay for wrongs done. It’s not fair if we can do wrong and “get away with it.” We need to redeem ourselves somehow. When we do wrong, even when we don’t do very wrong, just not quite right, we are guilty. We are not perfect but are a tiny bit rotten. The Bible calls that “sin.” “Sin” is another word that we shy away from using. It seems harsh. Like there could be just a little bit of badness, but we don’t want to call it SIN. Nevertheless, wrong is not right and it needs to be taken care of. It needs to be righted and that is redemption, redeemed from wrong or sin.
So this week the Advent dwells on the need for redemption. How do we get rid of that rottenness and be pure? I think the first thing we have to do is realize our need for being saved or redemption. I am reminded of the movie “Finding Nemo.” “Finding Nemo” is a cute movie about a little fish and a little fish’s life. Nemo is an adolescent little guy eager to try out life on his own. His father is a bit overprotective, always curtailing activities that might be dangerous. He is over worried about Nemo because Nemo has a small handicap. He has one little fin that never developed fully. The father worries constantly. Nemo thinks he is capable of being independent and taking care of himself, so he takes off without thinking and finds himself in big trouble. He is lost and alone in a big, vast ocean full of bigger, scary, hungry, frightening creatures.
Nemo’s father loves him and will do anything to save him. He goes into that big, vast ocean undaunted by the seemingly impossible task of finding one little fish in it and saving that little fish. Of course many frightening things occur, but the father never gives up. The rest of the movie is spent going through many harrowing escapades until Nemo is found. Goofy little Nemo goes through all his adventures not even realizing that he is lost or that he needs to be found, but in the end, he does realize his need to be saved and he longs for the safety of Dad and home.
Like Nemo, we go through the Christmas season, not realizing our need to be saved. We swim around having a great time and don’t realize a need for a savior to come. Our concentration is not on our need for Christ to come, but on getting ready for family time, getting ready for a huge blow-out dinner, getting ready to have a good time at the party. All the while our father is planning how to find us and save us from our sin. He is planning how to find us and give us “redemption.” He is sending a savior – a light to the whole world.
This week is one where I should think about the plan God had to get me out of the ‘par-tay’ swim race. I must think about how God was intent on finding me. He is not willing to lose me. He is not willing to lose even one. His main idea was to search and search until I was found and redeemed. I need to be cleaned up and made pure so I can associate with a Holy God and the only way to do it is to be justified with Christ’s sacrifice for me. Justified – just as if I’d – never done wrong at all. I need that. I need to be redeemed and God chose to do it by sending His only son to conquer sin and redeem me from it. This week I think about redemption and how much I need it. Next week is concentration on the way God chose to do it. Incarnation is the theme for next week and the culmination of Advent.
Searching out the meaning of the tradition of Advent has been rewarding. I have been able to concentrate more on Christmas, Christ’s coming as He did, and what it all means to me. I hope it has done the same for you and that your Christmas time will be richer for it.
I’m a bit behind on this advent thing. There is supposed to be one more week before Christmas and there are only three more days! Doesn’t this always happen? Don’t we always scream, “Only three more days!!”? What creatures of habit we are! I will try to get that last Advent thought on “Incarnation” in before the New Year at least.
I think of all of you often and do so appreciate your responses to my musings in “My Coffee with Jesus.” God bless and have a very Happy Christmas.
Irma Jane Fritz-Zager
My Coffee with Jesus 