Everybody’s
allowed a Christmas wish, right? My Christmas wish to the Lord is that He would
grant me to communicate to one soul the meaning of God’s holiness so that they
connect with it. If you are reading
this, pray that you might be the one, because it’s the most precious
revelation.
Luke
recounts the story where Jesus went to eat at a Pharisee’s house. Though Christ
was treated cavalierly by His host, one woman of scandalous reputation approached
Him weeping, washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, then kissed
and anointed them with fragrant oil (Luke 7:37-38).
There
is something about the holiness of God, the forgiveness of sin, His overflowing
love and electrifying presence that can intertwine in the most precious
revelation. We don’t have a word big enough to describe it, something ike the holovpresness of God. Very few in the Bible, even in Jesus’ day,
seemed to receive the fullness of this revelation. But this woman did. And Martha’s
sister Mary did when she refused to give up her place at Jesus’ feet in order to
wait tables [Luke 10:38-42]. She confirms it shortly thereafter when John records her breaking an alabaster box of very
costly perfume and pouring it on Jesus’ feet [John 12:3] (Mark’s gospel says on
His head [Mark 14:3]).
Jesus hinted at it when He talked about the man who found
a treasure in a field that was so valuable he went and sold everything he had
in order to buy that field. Speaking of Himself, He said He was greater than
Solomon, the richest and wisest man of his day, and greater than
Jonah, who brought an entire evil kingdom to its knees with a one-sentence message.
In fact, the Bible has so much to say about the greatness of Jesus that words can’t
convey it. (Especially since words go to the head as intellectual knowledge,
which falls far short.)
But
these women understood it at the heart level, where it changed their lives
forever! None of the disciples were recorded as having that deep a level of
understanding, though they certainly had enough to follow Jesus wherever He
went. But these humble women … it’s like they were immersed in His holiness, washed
through and through by His purity, saturated by His love and forgiveness which
coursed through their beings in glorious waves that words could not express.
There is a little country church not far from here that
I’ve never been to. But a friend who has tells me that whenever the pianist begins
to play, a spirit of weeping comes over the congregation, including him. It’s
as if the holiness of God invades the room, and weeping is the only possible
response.
I was in a prayer meeting last week where they put on
some background music: a CD with just a piano playing. It was so beautiful and
worshipful that I had a similar response—I was overcome by tears. It was a
revelation of the inexpressible beauty of God.
The Bible says that if we seek God we will find Him if we
search for Him with all our hearts. As Christians we pray a lot, usually asking
for things. But how many have sought the Lord until He came with a revelation
of Himself like these women received? How many have prayed and asked Jesus to
reveal Himself in His holiness, His absolute purity, His beauty and forgiveness
that breaks their hearts in adoring love? That makes them like the man in the
parable, willing to sell all they have if they could only buy the field
containing this revelation?
That’s
my Christmas wish—that there would be at least one person out there reading
this who would seek the Lord until they connect with His holiness, until they are
overcome by His love--until their life is ruined for anything but seeking more
of Him.
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