A new year is here and Christmas is behind us. But the reality of Christ’s life should never be put behind us. It should be in front of us every day of our lives.
The following is an excerpt from the narration of our church’s Christmas musical in 2018. I’ve heard it before and hearing it again this year awakened a deep longing to share these words with others.
“Born in an obscure village, He was the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity, and worked in a carpentry shop until He was thirty.
Then for three years, He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never had a family… or owned a house… or held public office. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. In birth, He startled a king, in boyhood He puzzled the wise, in manhood He ruled the forces of nature.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was executed by the State by being nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property He owned on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Great men have come and gone. He lives on. Herod could not kill Him, Satan could not seduce Him, death could not destroy Him and the grave could not hold Him.
All this happened over twenty centuries ago, yet today He is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. Now, it is no exaggeration to say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.”
Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 