Come let us adore Him

I love Christmas music. I have more Christmas CDs than I can keep track of, and start listening to them in late October or early November. Those CDs are full of all kinds of Christmas songs. There's old and new, serious and funny, religious and secular. There are some great Christmas songs, but the ones that have held up the longest are the ones  that are the most special and should ring a chord in  the heart of every person who serves the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem. Silent Night, Away In a Manger, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. And O Come All Ye Faithful.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

  I have been thinking about this song lately. The song says "come all ye faithful." Does that mean only the faithful are invited to come and adore Him. or is everyone welcome to come and adore Him?

  I don't know the intent of the hymn writer, but could it be the song calls for the faithful to come and adore the Savior because they are the ones most apt to come anyway?

 At least once during every Christmas season when I am gazing at the nativity scene or an artist's rendering of the scene, the desire to step into the scene pops into my head. Can you imagine being there, gazing on God in the manger. Emmanuel, God with us. 

 But if we had been alive at that time, would we have been there if we had known? Angels appeared to the shepherds, the lowliest of people. They didn't appear to the religious people of the day, but to the lowliest, Maybe it was because God knew they were more faithful than the religious leaders of the day and all who conformed to their rules and ideals.

  We see how they reacted to Jesus years later. They didn't have time for Him or what He had to say and they wanted Him dead. Most likely, they would not have wanted to kill the baby Jesus as Herod did, but He would not have been found worth their time.

  More importantly, is He worth our time? Christmas is a great time to focus more on the Christ of the Christmas story, to renew our covenant we made with Him when we asked Him into our hearts. It is awesome to come and adore Him this time of year and aim to make the holiday with all of its trappings about Him as much as we can. But if when we pack up Christmas and put it away, we also put Him in a box or on the shelf to just pull out when we need Him, we aren't doing it right.

  The faithful adore and worship Him 365 days a year, 24/7. He doesn't become the center of our lives and attention one month out of the year, but every day of the year. He isn't a baby anymore, but a risen Savior who we need to serve and not make just an important part of our lives, but THE most important part.

  We can't step into the Christmas story, but the most important part of the Christmas story, Jesus, can step into our hearts, and that is far greater than being able to step into the Christmas story and gaze upon and adore the baby king. We can have Him in our hearts and worship and adore Him every day.

  

  And if we are among the faithful, that is exactly what we will do.