If You Weren’t Such A Mess!

By Shayne O’Brien

IF YOU WEREN’T SUCH A MESS!

Life can be messy can’t it. In fact, if life weren’t messy, there would have been no need for Christmas. If you weren’t such a mess, no offense, there would have been no need for Christmas. If I wasn’t such a mess, there would be no need for Christmas. For God so loved this messy world, He showed up.  

WE are why there’s a Christmas! 

But the story of Christmas didn’t start in a manger—it started a few thousand years before all that when God promised Abraham, “Through you, all nations on earth will be blessed.” Jesus’ arrival, that we celebrate at Christmas, fulfilled that promise, because Jesus showed up to Bless the World. 

But here’s the question: If the arrival of Jesus blessed the world, shouldn’t those of us who call ourselves Jesus’ followers bless the people around us? The world is better off because Jesus showed up, for goodness' sake, shouldn’t it also be better off wherever His followers show up?

So if you are thinking, “Exactly, and that’s why I want nothing to do with a church or people who call themselves Christians because when I look at them and then I look at Jesus, I just wonder why are you nothing a like?” I get that. Jesus came to bless the world and you are absolutely right in your thinking, Jesus followers should be doing the same thing. 

Jesus did come to bless the world, but that’s not all He did when he showed up. Jesus also showed up to remove the mystery about God. 

We aren’t much different today than those who lived in the 1st century. They too had religion to try and figure out what God was like, and to try and get God to like them by what they did inside that religion. And  here we are 2000 years later doing many of the same things. 

When Jesus showed up he said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen God.” Meaning if you want to know what God is like, look no further than Jesus. In fact if you look past Jesus, or stop short of Jesus, you will miss God entirely!

But Jesus didn’t just tell us about God—He embodied Him. He was Emmanuel, God with us. He laughed with people, cried with people, camped out and lived alongside real people like us. He was God in a robe and sandals and a beard. He was comfortable with people’s mess. He was comfortable with the outcast.  He was comfortable with sinners. And it wasn’t judgement he brought, it was love and open arms to ALL people! Why? Because that’s what your Heavenly Father is like and Jesus was born to show you what God was like, and who God likes. 

The church I am honored to be a part of, RockPointe Church, is a gathering of self-admitted jacked up people. We need a lot of work. But we are trying to do what Jesus did. We don’t always get it right….but we are trying. 

On Christmas Eve we gathered for a meaningful, authentic and nostalgic Christmas celebration.  We remembered that WE are why there is a Christmas, our messiness is why Jesus was born.   

We ended our service with a simple act of lighting a candle. As we lit them, it was a reminder of what happens when just one person decides to be a blessing. When one of us shows up in someone’s mess. When one of us reflects, like Jesus, who our Heavenly Father is to someone, anyone, around us.

As we lit up the room, one candle at a time, we were reminded of the power we have to bring love and hope to someone’s messy world! The same love and hope we have been given, because of the night Jesus entered our messy world!

YOU are the reason there’s a Christmas! 

Merry Christmas!