"It's the time of year when people are thinking about Jesus."

she told Matt Tuesday morning before handing him a book, "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived." Up until Matt shut the door, listening from the other room, I thought perhaps my "Jehovah's Witness" assumption was incorrect. Maybe a local church was just encouraging it's congregants to go to people's homes and tell them openly about Jesus, using Christmas as the bridge. (If that HAD been the case, we'd be at THAT church this Sunday!)

However, two minutes with the material she left after promising to return soon to discuss it (she has no idea what she's gotten herself into...Matt lives for conversations like this :) made it obvious the Jesus she is "thinking about" isn't the same one who has transformed our lives and who is THE hope of the world this Christmas...this moment.

We couldn't help but feel a little discouraged, not just because no Christian has EVER come to the door wanting to tell us about the Bible or about Jesus or about how He is the Lord of their lives, but also because the combatting message that we DID hear at church this past Sunday was that, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, there is a place for all of us "misfits."

Life isn't just dire in Haiti. Being back in the States for the past few weeks now has reminded me how desperate the situation is here, too...how hungry the world (parts fully realizing, and other parts ignorant to the fact) is for Jesus, for truth, for change.

Reading through the story of Jesus coming into the world this past week from the Luke account, I want that...that HOLINESS, that AWE, that TRUTH and that simplicity of who Jesus is.

"Praise the Lord! He has sent us a MIGHTY Savior
JUST as He promised long ago
NOW we will be saved!
He has been merciful by remembering his sacred covenant
We have been rescued from our enemies
so that we can SERVE God WITHOUT fear,
in HOLINESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS for as long as we live!

And you, my little son (speaking of John the Baptist)
will be called the prophet of the Most High,
because you will prepare the way for the Lord
You will tell His people HOW TO FIND SALVATION
through FORGIVENESS of their sins.
Because of Gods tender MERCY,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace." Luke 1:68-79

Um, WOW.

There it is: WHO our God is...a God who VISITS us, REDEEMS us, sends us a Savior, and is faithful to His promises

WHAT our lives should look like...Serving God without fear, being holy and righteous for as long as we live

and WHAT we should be doing...telling people how to find His Salvation..guiding HIS people who sit in darkness towards this AWESOME, unfaltering and unable-to-be-substituted-by-ANYTHING-else Light...cannot-be-counterfeited, purchased or fabricated Path of Peace.

Man. Let's give THAT this Christmas. You can't GET THAT from other religions and cults, can't GET THAT from Rudolph or even from most churches we've been in, can't GET THAT from good time with family, from a new baby, a great vacation, time off of work or great Christmas traditions. That's why He's the MESSIAH. the SAVIOR. Because there is nothing else worth having...no other Light for this Darkness.

I HOPE it's that time of year when people are thinking about Jesus. Let's give it to them...

O come, O come Emmanuel...God with us!