Skip to main content

Linus


A few weeks ago I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas while Nancy put finishing touches on the Christmas tree. Watching the show has become a part of our annual Christmas tradition and may be part of your Christmas tradition as well. According to www.usatoday.com, A Charlie Brown Christmas celebrated 50 years on air making it the second longest running holiday show. It is second only to Rudolph, which has been televised one year longer. Charlie Brown makes us laugh and makes us think.

Charlie Brown certainly is the star of the show, but my favorite part of the show happens when Linus tells us the true meaning of Christmas as he quotes Luke 2. Linus is well read for a 5 year old and can speak deeply on matters of theology and philosophy. But, Linus is 5, and is beset by fears of the world around him. Linus is rarely seen without his security blanket despite protests from his sister, Lucy. Linus’s blanket made him invisible when Sally sought him as a boyfriend and became a weapon when Linus needed defense. Linus usually turns to his blanket when he is afraid.

On this night, Linus lets go of his blanket for a moment as he teaches us about peace and fear. The answer to what Christmas is all about is the birth of Jesus. Jesus has come to bring us peace and to replace our fears. Before we begin following Jesus, we are like Linus in that our fears are present in everyday aspects of our lives. We are afraid that we might disappoint people. We are afraid of economic collapse. We fear medical catastrophes. We fear removing the warning label from our pillows. We are afraid of what people might do to us. We fear death. In Christ all of our previous fears are removed and replaced with one, holy fear of Jesus. We fall at His feet and worship and we are filled with great peace. Like Linus we lay down our security blanket and ponder the simple wonder of the God who came down.

What worries and fears run through your mind this Christmas season? Walk with us to the hillside farm in Bethlehem lit by a sky full of stars. Gather around the manger with people from all walks of life, and hear the sound of animals as they settle in for the night. Look at this little baby and know that He came to this world for you. He came to replace your fears. He came to forgive your sins. He came to give you hope. He is here. Let your fears fade and worship before Him.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why people don't go to church

As a pastor, one of the consuming questions with which I wrestle is “Why don’t people go to church?” In particular, the question is “Why don’t people come to my church?” If you doubt that people are opinionated, ask this question to a group of church people on a Wednesday night. I’ve studied church growth for several years, and I have a number of opinions about the matter myself. But, I wonder if we are asking the right question to the wrong people. Several researchers in the last few years have begun asking people who don’t attend church why they don’t attend church, and the answers are interesting. George Barna asked this question and provided the answers in his book, Grow Your Church from the Outside In . The top five reasons that people gave for not attending church comprise 83% of the reasons why people don’t come to church. 1. No time; schedule conflicts; working 26% 2. Not interested; nothing to offer; no reason 16% 3. Don’t know 15% 4. My beliefs are different than the church’s
3 comments
Read more

A Life Worth Living

We all have an idea of how we hope that our life would go. We all have dreams. We have dreams for our own lives and the lives of people who are close to us. We have goals that we would like to accomplish during our lifetime. We have a measure of what would constitute a complete life for us. When reality does not match our idealized life, we are disappointed and sad. We grieve the loss of a life that we had imagined both for ourselves and those who are close to us. We wonder where God is in all of these situations. The Bible tells us about a man with whom we can identify. Jacob’s life had taken several unexpected twists, yet he came to the end of his life content with God’s will. Jacob was ready to die, when his end was approaching. He was at peace with his life and all that God had done through him even though life had not turned out the way that he had planned. Finally, Jacob said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen your face again and know you are still al
Post a Comment
Read more

Technical Difficulty

This blog has been inactive for a while due to some technical issues. It is good to be back and I have learned that my technical ability has declined in the last few years. It is amazing how quickly things change. I have been around computers for almost 30 years. My dad bought a commodore 64 in the early 80’s and bought an IMB clone pc later that decade. I spent part of my childhood playing Impossible Mission and Pac Man while typing the occasional paper. For those of you who did not grow up in the 80’s, yes, typing a paper was a big deal. I’m surprised that I didn’t get beat up more as a kid. I learned how to use pc’s before Windows 3.1 and remember when Word Perfect was better than Word – the WYSIWYG was way better on Word Perfect when printing to a dot matrix. While I was in college in the early 90’s I took computer programming and worked in the computer lab. During graduate studies I continued working in computer labs and began doing contract work for computer vendors
Post a Comment
Read more