Jesus Christ is Coming to Town!

It's been over a month now since the close of the Christmas season and I still can't get something out of my mind. I was at work one day in December, in the middle of a sit with a child less than thrilled about having his picture taken (I work as a photographer in a studio), and instead of disciplining her child for his unruly behavior, his exasperated mother informed her child, "You need to obey me right now because Santa Clause is watching! If you're not good, he won't bring you any presents this year!" The little boy immediately straightened up for his picture and even gave me a half smile through the tears leftover from his tantrum. I was amazed and a little disgusted. I was struck with how much power the idea of Santa had over this kid. I was reminded of a conversation I had with someone a few weeks earlier when we heard the song "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" on the radio. My friend commented that the tune made Santa sound like divinity, and this little incident at work proved their observation frighteningly true. But think about how wonderfully different it would have been if that mother had said something like, "Jesus loves you more than you can imagine and He is coming back soon because He wants to be with you so badly. He has given you a mommy and daddy, a house, and food to eat because He loves you so much and the way we show Him that we love Him back is by obeying Him. But remember that we do not obey to make Jesus love us, we obey because He loves us." What a difference?! The former was all about instilling the fear of disobedience and the latter instills the hope of Jesus.

What if the second coming was our motivation? The fact of the matter is that Jesus said that He is coming SOON (Revelation 22) and if we live in any way that is contrary to believing that He is coming soon, we are not being obedient to scripture. Let us not get wrapped up in the anticipation of the world. We are waiting for something far better that Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. People, Jesus Christ is coming to town! Let's get excited about it, for He does not want to come for a Bride that is indifferent about His coming.

Santa Clause's got nothing on my Jesus.