music :: worship :: life
Throughout this season I have been reminded of a story from the life of Jesus—the story of Martha and Mary:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
—Luke 10:38-42
This is the season when we get distracted by all the preparations, all the details, all the scurrying. Locust swarms of shoppers strip the malls bare and clot the city’s traffic arteries, turning streets into honking, cursing glaciers of gridlock. The simple worship service overnight grows into a six-headed beast no one can tame. Fuming families sulk in their corners, or feign togetherness to prove to the world that they are brimming with the mandatory holiday spirit. Lead-pipe evangelists pound the “Put Christ back in Christmas” drum. The Christmas juggernaut grinds us all to pulp.
I say, “Let’s put Christmas back in Christmas.” Christmas means a celebration of the coming of our promised savior. We’ve all been distracted by the preparations we think need to be made. But Jesus is saying to us, “Only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen rightly.” If our attention wanders away from Christ and onto any other thing, we have lost that One Thing. That One Thing is Jesus. The One Thing we need do is sit at the feet of our master and king, and devote ourselves wholly to Christ.
To save the world, Jesus needed only a few handfuls of straw and a simple cattle stall to lay in. He needed no elaborate preparations. Nor does he require of us an elaborate response. When we surrnder ourselves in joyful devotion to Christ, we are doing that one needful thing.
Merry Christmas.
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