Into the Fire

There's a journey toward heaven many people make. Or attempt to take. It's a point in time when they must consider themselves more than a two dimensional being. If they choose to admit or desire to be more than just the skin and bones and the intellect and emotions, it usually means they will investigate what a spiritual being looks like, feels like, and ultimately what that individual will do in life once this concept is embraced.

What many people will fail to do is to go looking for Jesus. They will seek rituals, rules, practices, ideals, and general theologies for the simple reason that life has felt out of control for them. Of course it is. For all of us. But it's not something that all these idelogies will correct, although some people will be pacified by them and allow them to provide justification for whatever their laws demand.

There is a simple beauty, often too simple for some to believe, that alleviates the multiple forms of investigations in this journey. It is the Truth. The one few actually choose because of its miraculous but simple admission and format. And the fact is the Truth isn't a concept or a practice or a ritual. The Truth is Jesus. God, man, Spirit. Jesus Christ. The Way to heaven, the Life who overcomes eternal death for which we are all destined without Him, and the Truth about all things physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual.

People protest the "fairy-tale" of a miraculous God whose Son came down to earth from heaven to live among men and ultimately give His pure, unstained life as a ransom for the human race, enabling anyone who accepts His sacrifice for them and acknowledges their sins, asking forgiveness, and deciding to surrender to the One who loves them above all others. That's it? some ask. Well, there is an endless well of spiritual renewal to follow, an awakening where suddenly even the tragic ugliness makes sense – albeit to no one's liking – and the influx of understanding continues in great depths if the person who has turned to Jesus allows himself to walk forward with the Savior.

Some find that the world is too complex for such simplicity and disallow it in their lives. In their sinful hearts, they perceive there must be ritual or works to salve their guilt. Others refuse to take ownership of their black interior and insist "goodness" can be manufactured, in other words "man-made", yet they ignore the continual status of this earth since the first note of history was recorded, relying on the lies of evolutionary conduct in "millions or billions" of years to finally solve the inevitable problems of mankind. In this short-sighted evaluation they fail to realize mankind hasn't changed in all of the time allotted to its admittance on earth in spite of their unrealistic and impossible assessments.

Looking for Jesus can be a meaningful journey but needn't be long and filled with myth, superstition, and magic. His coming was written about hundreds of years before He arrived. As was His sacrificial death. His eye witnesses documented His time here and those of us who found Him in our journeys – when really He "found" us – can tell you He's as real as the air we breathe, the love we pursue, the food we consume. He is, was, and always will be. Unchanging. Real. Waiting. He did the dirty work for an undeserving creation. All God asks is that the human race acknowledge the huge price paid for them to get to an eternal heaven. And embrace Jesus.

The essence of the Christmas season is seeing the arrival of Jesus, the One who would save us from the terrible penalty of sin, the One who gave it all, experiencing the degradation of humanity only to rescue everyone who chooses to follow Him. It's marvelous, miraculous, and majestic.

Looking for Jesus? Look no further than the yearnings of your heart.

Thank you, Jesus. It's never enough.