A Christmas Feasting Thought

This morning I was thinking about what we had talked about and shared at our Matrix Christmas Feast last night. Scott encouraged us all to keep Jesus in the center of our Christmas season. A great reminder. We had a fun Christmas feast of eating and drinking that many believers have partaken of, in some fashion, for most of our lives. During the reading of the Christmas story I was reminded that our savior was born into a lower status household. That He was not a person of wealth, or power. And that He truly was an alien in a foriegn land. So this morning when I was reading through Zechariah chapter 7 and I came across this, it struck me pretty powerfully;

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?' And when you were eating and drinking were you not feasting for yourselves?"

And further down,

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'

I looked at this and I thought about the African men living here as aliens, selling their nic-nacks down by the beach. I thought about the orphans with HIV living at Casa Sol. I thought about the fragile little old ladies that I see walking down the cobblestone streets with their groceries. I thought of the homeless I see around Cascais and I wondered, do I remember Jesus when I see the least of these? Is my Christmas about feasting for me, or truly feasting for Jesus? Have I lived out the gospel during this Christmas season or did I go into auto-pilot and just start doing what I have always done for so many seasons? Yes, I have remembered that it is the birth time of Jesus. But I have to ask myself, 'Have I heard the words of the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets?' Zech 7:7

I know that there is no condemnation in Jesus, but I also know that as I wander along the narrow path ahead of me there are people that I can either become involved with or I can step over. So as we approach the season of Christmas may we as followers of the Christ truly make Christmas a time of feasting that is for Jesus. May they know us by our Love. And May You Be Blessed in Doing This.