WERE YOU THERE?

If we look towards the other end of the birth of Jesus this Christmas season we look squarely at the cross. And who was there.

Some were there for sorrow. Certainly His Mother, Mary Magdalene, Mary's sister, John, and another woman who some say was Jon's mother. But there were thousands on the hill at Golgotha that day. Some were there to mock, to dance, to tease Jesus to come down from the cross.

Where were the throngs? Where were the other followers? How about those who received His magnificent miracles? The 5,000 He fed? The shepherd was stuck and the sheep scattered.

It's a good thing we're not like that today. That's what I find about the people from Jesus' time and before. They just didn't act right. They weren't religious enough. Not like us. And if you haven't noticed my firmly planted tongue in cheek, then you're not reading closely.

How many times have we grown weak in a place of confrontation about Jesus? How about our silence in situations where non-followers of Jesus have been? Have many times have we pushed Him aside and ignored Him? Guilty as charged? Without a doubt.

And all the while on each side of the cross Jesus forgives. Only by God's grace are we taken back into the fold. Jesus didn't desert us, and He never will. "Stand up, stand up for Jesus," should be easy, especially this time of the year.