Jesus is the Center!

A number of years ago I was leading a Children’s Message on Christmas Eve. I had a box that contained several items related to Christmas. There were Christmas cards, decorations, music, candy, cookies—just about anything I could get my hands on that had to do with the season. As I was unloading the box, saying something about each items and what was special about it for me, I heard a little voice from somewhere in the room quite loudly ask, “But, where is Jesus?”

This little one understood something quite profound. This little one understood that Jesus is the center of Christmas.

You know that Christmas, as a cultural event, places us at the center. It pushes our me/my buttons. It stimulates our wants and desires (over our needs). It lures us into the false promise, “If I were just to get the right gift at Christmas everything would be alright and all my problems would be solved.” It tempts us to believe that we are in charge of our lives.

While all of this is fun, the truth is Jesus is the center, not just of Christmas but, most importantly, of life. Think about the ways that Jesus is announced in the scriptures. “In the fullness of time...” has to do with in the center of time, at the right time. “Immanuel, ‘God with us’” has to do with Jesus dwelling right in the middle of us, individually and corporately. “Light” always is always the center of darkness.

All this is to say that Jesus is the center of all life: the center of our right relationship with God, the Center of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the center of the Bible, the center of all faith active in life.

Jesus is the center of the salvation story, the center of worship the center of prayer and devotion, the center of our ability to live with love and to offer love and forgiveness to others. Jesus is the center of life everlasting and the center of our hopes and dreams for this world.

Jesus is the center of my joy at the sunrise and the awe in the face of the setting sun. Jesus is the center of my confidence of safety and rest in the night and meaningful relationships and ministry during the day. Jesus is the center of my confidence in leaving the house in the morning and the wonder of a welcome home in the evening. Jesus is in the center of friendships, marriages and ministries. Jesus is the center of love, faith hope, forgiveness, generosity and grace.

You see, the center of anything that I can name is Jesus.

Sometimes these days it is so very easy to miss all of this amid the hype, the boxes filled with “Christmas” stuff. Even the reminder to “keep Christ in Christmas” can lure us into (perhaps falsely) believing that we are putting Jesus at the center.

Every year about this time, that little voice from the past echoes in my mind, “Where is Jesus?” And I take a moment to reflect, recalabrate, reset, restart and refocus.

The center? Jesus.

Jesus and no one, no thing, else ....