Searching for Truth this Christmas
In December 2019, these were the top 5 questions searched on google regarding Christmas...
- How many days until Christmas?
- When is Christmas?
- What do I want for Christmas?
- How to draw a Christmas tree?
- What does Noel mean?
Seriously?!
I guess that if you knew the answer to #2 then you could find the answer to #1, but for #3 it's certainly handy that we have google to ask!
With answers to all our questions literally at our fingertips, our lives have changed radically from what they were before the internet.
I read something interesting in Alisa Childer's Another Gospel?,
"the internet literally changed the world. All of a sudden, loads of information flooded our homes through the little glowing screen known as the personal computer. Skeptical claims and secular theories--which, in generations past, Christians lived entire lifetimes without hearing--were abruptly challenging our comfortable beliefs and confronting our deeply ingrained spiritual, sociological and intellectual paradigms. We weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto."
We certainly weren't!
I don't know about you, but during this election year the most frustrating thing to me was the seriously conflicting information that came my way. One side said one thing, the other side said another, and as best as I could figure--there was no way both sides could be telling the truth!
And to make matters worse, we had "fact-checker" websites that were self-proclaimed to be the reporters of the facts--only they too reported complete opposite "truths."
Now more than ever we would do well to have a guide who will lead us to the truth!
I'm reminded of the wise men who traveled from a long way away in search of truth. Their journey culminated with them bowing at Jesus' feet and showering Him with gifts fit for a King. (Matthew 2:1-18)
Evidently these men, who'd seen a star, and followed their belief that signs in the heavens heralded events on earth; saw baby Jesus and encountered Truth.
There are so many wise men and women today searching the heavens (and the internet) for truth. They think they're looking for a mantra, or a compass, or a purpose they can live for.
They don't realize that what they're really seeking is Truth.
They don't know that Truth has a name.
And that Truth came to earth as a baby--fully human and fully divine.
They don't know He told us the truth, demonstrated the truth and lived the truth.
And they've yet to find what the wise men found--that Truth is the Person of God; who saves our souls and sets us free.
He is our mantra...
our compass...
our purpose.
He's been hidden from them with lies strategically created to separate them from the very Truth they yearn to know.
What can we do to help them?
We can love them (and each other)--like He loves us...with a love that is uncompromising and unconditional. (John 13:35)
We can share Him with them...as He gives us opportunity, with love and compassion. (2 Timothy 4:2)
And we can cling to Him...and trust Him to draw them to Himself, just as He drew the wise men from way over yonder with a star! (See Isaiah 49:24-25 for assurance that your loved ones will be saved.)
Let's be ambassadors for the Truth this Christmas season! Afterall, we know the Truth and He has set us free!
By the way, Noel is a term signifying the holiday season, Noël comes to us from the Latin verb nasci, meaning “to be born.” In the book of Ecclesiastes, the birth of Jesus is called natalis. A variation of this word, nael, made its way into Old French as a reference to the Christmas season and later into Middle English as nowel.
(Thank you, Google!)
