Skip to main content

Smiling Christmas Cards

Tribe of Taylor--June 2018 recycled pic
There's a growing stack of Christmas photo cards that have been arriving daily in the mail. These have replaced the trend of the 90s: the "Christmas letter" (although I did get one of those). Not one picture has a grumpy face in it. That's how I know they're not real.

Someone in at least one of those photos was not having a good time, but they put on the happy face to hide it. You can hide a lot of stuff behind a smile.

Pictures are images of a moment in time when we posed for a camera. The moments immediately before are often chaotic, and the moments after are usually filled with relief. "I can't wait to have another family photo shoot," said one family out of 10,000.

Have you ever wished you could see Jesus in His family photo?

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." (Matthew 1:18)

This family photo begins with Jesus Christ, His mother Mary, and His earthly father Joseph. We know from Scripture that Joseph was not the birth father, as Mary was "found with child of the Holy Ghost." The virgin birth has confounded people with and without faith for generations. Child-like faith simply believes God.

Jesus was born of a virgin and then became part of a family that likely had many ups and downs. His parents even lost Jesus in a crowd (Luke 2:42-48). How scary was that? Can you imagine the fear as the parents searched for their Son? Sounds like a totally regular family.

We don't have Christ's family photo, but we do have the historical record of His life in Scripture. The Word of God is the family photo for Jesus, and it is God's Christmas Card to humankind.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God..." (Ephesians 2:8)

Those who have received Christ's free gift of salvation are in the family photo. This is one of the most inclusive families of all time. Seekers are still finding Him, receiving His free gift and being added to the "family photo" every single day. 

And they share the same name: Whosoever.

Maybe you've smiled for a camera, but your soul isn't smiling. If you are facing major uncertainties such as fear of death or not knowing what would happen to your soul if you stopped breathing, God has a remedy for that.

The Bible calls it salvation, and there has never been a greater Christmas gift. 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)


Francie Taylor
Editor's note: Everyone will spend eternity somewhere. If you're not sure where you would go after your final heartbeat, read more about it here, courtesy of First Baptist Church of Rosemount, Minnesota:
https://fbcrosemount.org/salvation/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parents Are Not Responsible for That

Parenthood is not a role for wimps or whiners. There are the exciting times such as music recitals, sports tournaments, and graduations. But if your tribe is like ours, you've probably also had the maddening moments, like the time one of our children discovered how to unfasten the tapes on his diaper and used the contents as "chalk" on the bedroom  wall (yes, it was "his," so that narrows the field of suspects). Children are young for a few blinks, and then we spin around and we're hearing "Pomp and Circumstance," that familiar graduation march as our "babies" walk down the aisle in cap and gown. If they choose to go on to college, four snaps later, we're sitting in the auditorium at their college graduation, scanning a long list of names in the commencement bulletin while waiting to watch them walk across the platform to receive yet another diploma. It's warp-speed fast (except that diaper stage). Parents don't min
45 comments
Read more

Why Abishag and Not Bathsheba?

When you read Bible stories, do you ever wonder about things? I often wonder, and one story on my "wonder list" is the account of the aged King David and his lovely young caregiver named Abishag. David already had plenty of wives, including one very beautiful stolen wife named Bathsheba. When David was struggling to stay warm (Scripture says "he got no heat"), why didn't he call for Bathsheba? I wonder...and I'm going to hazard a guess that they had grown apart over the years. I can't prove it, but it can't be conclusively denied, either. Here's the Scriptural account, to refresh your memory: "Now kind David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat. Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fa
5 comments
Read more

Wait-Hate

Sitting at what I was sure was the world's longest left-turn signal, I suddenly realized that I was being impatient for no good reason. After all, I was only waiting to turn left and then right...into the gas station. Not exactly like being late for an important date! Wait hate. Many of us struggle with it, and the impatience is making life unnecessarily miserable. Why do we hate to wait? I have some theories and good guesses, but it is possible that one of the biggest reasons why we can't even tolerate driving in a lane with a slow car in front of us is because we've been trained by our culture to expect everything instantly. Have you ever been "that person," driving and yelling "Move over, Pokey Joe!" even though your windows were closed and that other driver couldn't hear you? Tap. Swipe. Send.  Wait-Hate is learned, and this impatience is very costly. Instead of praying and allowing God time to provide direction and confirm
22 comments
Read more