IMAGINE

I'm an only child, so as a kid, I didn't have a lot of other children to play with. So I'd create imaginary friends and imaginary pets and I'd use my Matchbox cars and the oval-braided rug in my grandmother's living room as a race track for hours, imagining I was some famous race driver. I never want to lose that ability to dream and the capacity to wonder and imagine.

That's what Mary did when the Bible says she "treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19) 'Pondered' means 'imagined.' She cradled her newborn and imagined just what God might be up to in her life.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to have been one of the angels chosen to deliver the most awesome news of all time – that God had come to earth in the form of a baby?

Can you imagine what a thrill it must have been for the shepherds to hear the news before anyone else? Shepherding was a dead end, minimum wage job – day in and day out – always the same – smelly – nothing great ever happened on sheep watch. But on this night, God chose them to be the first people on the planet to learn that a Savior had been born.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Joseph? There he stands in the middle of a dirty stable with a brand-new pregnant wife and he’s probably thinking, 'I'm such a loser. Look at us here. This is the best I can do for them?' Imagine having the character and the confidence in God to be able to say, 'I don't completely get it, but I'm putting my trust in the One whose word never fails.'

Can you imagine being Mary … to know the Son of God is inside you? To go thru the pain and labor and pushing and breathing and the joy of hearing the cries of God as He enters the world thru you?

Can you imagine sitting on a hillside listening to Him teach like you’d never heard anyone teach in your life … “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled … Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God … and don’t judge; instead if you’re going to try to take the speck out of your brother’s eye, first remember to take the plank out of your eye … love your neighbor as yourself … love your enemies … bless those who persecute you ... if somebody smacks you, turn the other cheek.”

Can you imagine being in the crowd that day when Jesus takes a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread and makes it last to feed five thousand people till they were stuffed?

Imagine sitting in a boat in the middle of a violent storm thinking, ‘This is it; we’re all going to die.’ And then HE speaks to the winds and waves and says, “Knock it off,” and they go to glass.

Can you imagine lining the streets of Jerusalem that day when this very same man – this man who touched the untouchable – who embraced the dirty and the diseased – who stood up for the disadvantaged – now being led up a hill to be crucified on a cross as a common criminal?

Can you imagine hearing that little baby who cried out in a stuffy barn in Bethlehem now crying out from a cross – ‘IT IS FINISHED … what I came to do is now completed.’

And just imagine that all of this was done … for you. You don’t have to imagine. Because it was. It’s all true. God came looking for you.

John 3:16 – ‘God loved the world so much that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him should never die but have everlasting life.”

Imagine that.

Christmas is about a God who longs to be with us – to forgive our sin – to wipe away our past and give us a fresh start.

Imagine what it would be like to bring a selfless, unconditional love into your marriage and family every single day, maybe for the very first time …

Imagine what it would be like to have the courage and humility to finally forgive your dad – or mom – for what happened.

Imagine what it would be like to show up for Christmas dinner tomorrow without a big knot in your stomach.

Imagine what it would be like to walk free from guilt and pain and old memories that haunt you.

Imagine what it would feel like to be clean and sober and free from an addiction that has been messing up your life far too long.

Imagine what it would be like to walk thru your day with an overflow of joy because you’ve finally come to realize you’re not so insignificant after all.

Imagine what it would be like to live with a sense like Mary and Joseph had … that every day, God is WITH YOU.

Ephesians 3:20 simply says we have a God who is able to do ‘immeasurably more than we could ever ask … or IMAGINE.’

That’s why He came. That’s why He walked up a hill to a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. That’s why He died there. So we could have forgiveness thru His spilled blood so our lives could be unimaginably full and free forever.

Imagine that.

Merry Christmas.

And be blessed.