And so the Lord says, “These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” - (Isaiah 29:13)
I heard the story of a mother who was out Christmas shopping, frantically trying to get everything done. She had her small child with her, but for a moment, she lost sight of him. In sheer panic, she started retracing her steps and found him with his nose pressed against the glass of a store display, looking at a manger scene.
The boy said, “Mommy, Mommy! Look! It is Jesus in the hay!”
“Let’s go,” she said, as she took him by the hand and led him away. “We don’t have time for that.”
Exactly. That is the whole problem with this time of year that we call Christmas. We can be so busy celebrating Christmas that we forget all about Christ. In a sense, we can actually lose God in the midst of it all. We can very easily lose God in the so-called celebration of Jesus.
For many, the Christmas story is the one about Scrooge being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, or maybe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Frosty the Snowman or Santa Claus.
But technically, can we lose God? No, we really can’t. You can’t lose someone if you know where they are. If you know where they are, then they are not lost. But you can lose sight of someone. And some have lost sight of the Lord in their lives, especially at this time of the year.
Maybe you’ve had the experience of talking with someone who was checking their texts or updating their social media as you’re trying to tell them something important.
God never does that. God is never disinterested. God is never distracted. And even if we forget about Him, He never forgets about us. Christmas is not about buying presents; it is about His presence in our lives.
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Greg Laurie ( - )
Greg Laurie pastors Harvest Christian Fellowship (one of America's largest churches) in Riverside, California and Harvest Orange County in Irvine, California. He has authored several books including the Gold Medallion Award winner, The Upside Down Church, as well as Losers and Winners, Saints and Sinners and The Best Is Yet to Come. You can find his study notes in the New Believer’s Bible, The Seeker’s Bible, and the Start! Bible.Host of the television program GregLaurie.tv and the nationally syndicated radio program A New Beginning, Laurie is also the founder and featured speaker for Harvest Crusades — contemporary, large-scale evangelistic outreaches, which local churches organize nationally and internationally — and Harvest America, which offers churches nationwide the opportunity to host a crusade event simultaneously from their own local venues. Whether speaking or writing, God has gifted Pastor Greg Laurie with the ability to apply biblical principles to current events in a way that is relevant and easily understood by people of all ages, from all walks of life. The trademark of a Greg Laurie sermon, book, or broadcast is his contemporary, yet straightforward style and format. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Cathe.