Tuesday, December 25, 2007

The Impact of Jesus

Merry Christmas!
Surprisingly, the kids are sleeping later than ever this Christmas morning. The fragrance of the 11.9 pound turkey is wafting through the house. While we didn't have a silent night, we are being blessed with a Silent Morning.
This "lull" has given me time to reflect upon the impact of Jesus. While many do their best to remove "Jesus-References" from His birthday celebration, the impact of Jesus upon the world cannot be denied.
Personally, my relationship with Jesus Christ has changed my life in so many ways. Last night, my wife gave me a picture of Jesus with the children (Based on Mark 10:13-14). The large poster-like, color drawing is the type of image I had in my mind when, as a child, I prayed and committed my life to God. I asked God to forgive me of my sins and thanked Jesus for letting kids come to Him. That one decision has colored all of my life. Nothing is more important to me than my relationship with Christ.
For me, no writing or prose captures the impact of Jesus Christ better than this poem, believed to be published originally in 1926.

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a simple peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never had a family. He never owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born, and where he did go he usually walked.

He never wrote a book. He never held political office. He did none of the things we usually associate with greatness.

While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends deserted Him. He was turned over to His enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had in this world - and that was His robe. His purple robe.

When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave provided by compassionate friends.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race, the leader in the column of human progress. All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth so powerfully as this one solitary life.

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