That’s Christmas!
The Baby in the last place you’d expect…
The angels proclaiming His birth…
The shepherds coming to worship the Newborn King…
Awe! Aah! Ooh!
Have you ever experienced AWE? Has it ever brought you to tears? Has it changed your life?
I’ve been to Niagara Falls. It was awe-inspiring. I could not stop staring at it, thinking about the thunderous roar, the frothy foam, and the incredible power of all that water. Then I learned that much of the water above the Falls is siphoned off. It runs a hydro-electric facility, provides water to homes, and is used for several industries. Niagara Falls is a mere fraction of what it could be. It is bigger than we see, hear, or feel.
Then I read the stories of the tragic deaths, daredevil stunts, and incredible heroism and was awe-struck again.
Still, I was not overwhelmed. It did not change my life.
Some smaller things changed my life. Our children. They created joy and actual anxiety…like fear of dropping them as newborns. We didn’t. We enjoyed teaching them to ride bikes and watched them tip over. Skinned knees heal quickly. We were pleased to watch them grow into young adults. We wanted to make wise decisions FOR them…but didn’t.
I teared up many times over those years. It changed me (hopefully for the better?). Yet, as much as those fine offspring affected me, as much as they stretched me. and brought awe, aah, and ooh to my life … they did not affect me as dramatically as God has.
Salvation, for me, has been the supreme Awe, Aah, Ooh in my life.
One day I was contemplating God’s goodness. Contemplation is not something I often do. It suddenly became vividly REAL. I cannot do justice to the experience with my words.
The birth of my Savior was an awe-inspiring blessing. His willing agony and death on a cruel cross for my sins created a dismay-filled awe. His plan for my eternal salvation at a place where I will no longer have to war against my nature of sin enveloped me with the awe-love of God. That all three of these AWE-events are wrapped up in the foretold newborn Christ … brought me to a depth of AWE that I had never felt before.
How can God love me FAR MORE than I love my own children? How could Christ willingly take such suffering and personal loss of connectedness to His Father for me? How can God invite me to such a wonderful forever home? Pondering that God would do all of this for ME (and not just me) was beyond my stolid male-ability to rein in my emotions. That moment changed me.
God’s Ooh!, Aah!, and AWE! got me.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 (NIV)
Mary and Joseph knew. John the Baptist knew. The 11 remaining disciples knew. Now we ALL can know the AWE, AAH, and OOH of God’s Salvation plan.
That is Christmas!
MORE OF DON’S GREAT GUEST POSTS:
~ Christmas As A Poor (Rich) Child ~ Bigger Problems ~ Blessing ~ Climate Change – 2 ~ Medical Science Too Far? ~
~ Gravity and Light ~ Travel Fun ~ Fascinating People: Gloria Hartman Doughty ~ Sadly Magic Words ~ Mulberries ~
~ Climate Change? ~ SPURIOUS UBIQUITOUS NOISE ~ TEW ~ Credit Card Debt ~ ~ Insect Oddities ~ DATA ~
~ Cities Got Name? ~ The Bible Does Not Say That! ~ Too Old?? ~ Be My Guest ~ IN-CRE-MEN-TAL-ISM ~
~ Bad Friends & Broken Tools ~ Pools Are For The Birds?? ~ Animals Hindering Your Financial Freedom ~ The Chicken ~
~ Finding The Exit ~ ~ Allegheny Blackberries ~ Romantic Sunset At The Beach ~ Fun Facts About Carpenter Ants ~ Bad Habits ~
~ Doing Faith Wrong ~ Quirky! ~ Ten-Foot Trestle ~ Settling Estates ~ Living In High Horse Country ~ The Dying Generation ~
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