Sunday, December 24, 2006

Hercules vs Jesus

Hey everyone,

How’s it all going? Everything wrapped and ready to go?

Well today is Christmas Eve, you know the day before Christmas Day??? And I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a VERY VERY VERY VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS. I know that during all the business of Christmas it’s hard to actually sit down and enjoy what Christmas is all about, or even to think about what Christmas really means.

This is something that I have really struggled with this year. In all the bustle I found it hard to actually comprehend what Christmas means, and to think of the Christmas story as more than a just a story. But it is so much more than that. If you think about what it actually says it’s a pretty unbelievable, let me just remind you…

A Girl has a baby, not so unbelievable but she’s a virgin (ok so that complicates things a little) and she is like 16. No one believes her story about God giving her this child, but she stands by God’s plan and a guy called Joseph, who is also disgraced by this whole situation decides to stand by her (what kind of man would do that these days??). Anyway they travel to their home town and this poor girl is forced to give birth in the back of a stable (I tell you what, if that was me, I would have kicked up a stink, just ask Dave!). Then out of no where come these Sheppards who believe her story even before she has told it. And then some wise men, who have been travelling for months also come to visit and bring them some pretty fancy gifts. And this happens pretty much all at once. It’s pretty unbelievable, but there are two things that make it even more amazing… one this whole turn of events was planed for thousands and thousands years before it actually happened. The other that this baby was not an ordinary baby, well he was in the physical sense but he was also God. God in the form of flesh. That’s pretty crazy.

I was trying to think what this was like and the closest thing that I could come to was the story of Hercules. I know that is just a story, but its very similar in that a child is born to a God and comes to earth, but the difference between Jesus and Hercules is that… Hercules could only do what he did because of his incredible strength that he was born with, and while he was still mortal he had super powers. Where as Jesus was born completely mortal, he was still God, but he had no super powers like Hercules. He changed the world, not with super strength, but in complete humility.

Why could he do this? Because God had a big plan for his life… To save you (but we will get to that at Easter). But maybe if you haven’t already take a minute to think about what the real complications of Christmas are… God’s son on earth. A gift to you from Heaven.

Just a thought I had.

Happy Christmas and God Bless

Stay tuned.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good Summary, if thats not good enough go to see 'Nativity Story',
Great Movie for the whole family

Anonymous said...

well ...

thank God for Jesus hey?

we all need a little (or a lot) JC.