During Christmastime we are always telling our youth group students to use the season as an opportunity to reach out to their friends with the message of Jesus. After all, reminders are everywhere! On television, the radio, in the shopping malls, the slightly distorted secularized message of the birth of Christ is being blasted 24-7… a great segue into the glorious, pivotal event in history. Because we were telling our students to go for it and share the gospel with their friends, my husband and I decided to reach out to the neighbors we hadn’t met in our apartment complex with Christmas as the excuse.
We made cookies and cards and planned to go door to door introducing ourselves and talking to our neighbors about Christmas and Jesus. Well, the cookies were baked, the cards made, but they sat on our table for a while waiting to be delivered. Our hurdle was the fear of coming at the wrong time or interrupting when we knocked on our neighbors’ doors. We were being crippled by this mental t-chart of the pros and cons of when to enter their lives. Seems kind of silly doesn’t it? Or maybe familiar? The truth is, there was a logical time to go but there was never going to be a best time.
This got me thinking. What was the underlying issue there? Was it a bad thing that we were so afraid of interrupting? And then I remembered, Jesus was our interruption. The very story of Christmas:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NIV)
God, the Creator of the Universe, left his heavenly dwelling and became a human. The Greek word for “made his dwelling” in this verse is σκηνόω or skēnoō (good luck pronouncing that one!) which means to dwell but also to fix one’s tabernacle or to pitch a tent. God became flesh and pitched his tent among us! He inserted himself into human history, interrupting the pain and anguish we experience because of our sinful separation from a Holy God. Jesus’ interruption ultimately gave us a way to eternal life.
Shouldn’t we as bearers of Christ’s name and His mission and message do the same? My experience this Christmas helped me to realize that I shouldn’t be afraid of breaking into people’s lives with the grace and truth of the gospel. Not in a way that is obnoxious or mean, but with intentionality and with the knowledge that the message of Jesus is the best thing I could possibly offer.
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:5-7 (NIV)
So this Christmas and in the coming year let’s be interruptions and teach our students to do the same!
Emma, This was a very special and powerful post. Well written, convicting and inspiring. Thanks for making the point!