In middle school, I wasn’t the coolest kid on the block.
When you aren’t cool yourself, your best chance of survival is to get a cool kid to like you, acceptance by association.
For me, the cool kid was Justin. Justin always had the latest games, the latest music, the latest clothes, and he was a rebel, which added to his cool ‘lore’.
Justin was on my bus route, and he was also a big Gameboy player, so I quickly learned that I could ‘earn’ Justin’s attention by letting him borrow my Gameboy games. Thus, a friendship was born.
One afternoon, Justin and I were hanging out at a construction site of a new home being built, being kids. We were taking the glass bottles left behind by construction workers and breaking them on the concrete foundation … until a policeman drove by. As he pulled into the dirt lot where the home was being built, I froze.
Justin ran. He ran like the wind.
In fact, he ran several miles, all the way back to his house, while I stood in that dusty lot dealing with the consequences of my poor choice, alone.
Have you ever felt abandoned in your decisions? That your decisions left you standing alone with no one by your side?
Or even that God was no longer by your side?
You may have heard the story of a guy named Jonah. God had given Jonah direct orders that he chose to not follow through on. As a result, he ultimately found himself tossed overboard from the ship he was sailing on, amidst some perilous waters alone.
God wasn’t going to allow disobedient Jonah to just die, alone, in the waters. If you’ve read the story, you know God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah, and spare him from the waters, before spitting him up on a beach three days later. He still had a plan for him.
Despite his disobedience, God stuck with Jonah.
That is the beauty of the Christmas season.
Despite our own brokenness, the Creator is committed to His creation. We are not alone in this broken world, rather Jesus stepped into it to rescue us from it.
1 John 4:9 reminds us; “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
It’s not because of us; rather despite us.
This Christmas season, remember you are not alone.
God is with us.
Merry Christmas from your friends at Lee Company; we are grateful for the opportunity to serve this community; and pray God’s best over you heading into the new year.
Kyle Froman, Lee Company Chaplain – www.leecompany.com
