Christmas reminds us we are born for a purpose …

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

It didn’t take long for the Jesus born in a stable on the first Christmas to have an understanding of this, except in His case we would change the words to read that He had come from another “world.”

The Gospel according to Luke, chapter two, is very fast-moving, taking us from the jubilant announcement of Jesus’ birth, up until He was 12 years old, all in a single chapter. Near the end of that chapter, we see that Mary and Joseph had temporarily “lost” Jesus, only to eventually find Him three days later “… in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46b-47).

Mary and Joseph were perplexed at this sight …

“His parents didn’t know what to think. ‘Son,’ his mother said to him, ‘why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere’,” Luke 2:48.

Jesus answered Mary …

“‘But why did you need to search?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they didn’t understand what he meant,” Luke 2:49-50.

Jesus’ response is such that Mary and Joseph should have thought it quite the normal (and right) thing for Jesus to be busy about His Father’s business, even at the tender age of 12.

How old are you?

If Jesus thought it appropriate for a twelve-year-old to be focused on our heavenly Father’s business, shouldn’t you and I also know that at our ages?

What is your life’s focus? What are you busy about?

A.W. Tozer once wrote, “Our problem is that we go from toy to toy rather than from glory to glory,” a reference to 2 Corinthians 3:18 which indicates that we should be growing in the Lord from one level of glory to another …

“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image,” 2 Corinthians 3:18.

The bigger picture of Christmas reminds us that we, like Jesus, are born for a purpose, to be about our Father’s business while on our journey on this earth.

Regardless of your vocation, is the thrust of your life to be about the business of your heavenly Father?

Scotty