We’ve been watching through Little House on the Prairie recently.
Sometimes I like to think about what it would have been like to live back then. I usually come away thankful we don’t have to rely on outhouses and hand-laundry! But there’s a lot to be admired in a hard-working life where you don’t have to fit “exercise” into your daily life because it just happens as you go. You know what I mean?
The other night as we drove to a Christmas party, I was gazing out the passenger window when I saw a man stretching on the sidewalk overlooking a lake. How nice, he’s got a pleasant spot to work out in, I thought. And then it struck me how odd it would look to the Ingalls if they could be transported to our time and find that most people had to fit in the gym on top of all the other things!
Today, as I read Luke 10, I had another time travel moment, as I wondered what it would have been like to live when Jesus was here, walking on the earth.
Especially, I wonder what category of people I might belong to. Would I recognize Jesus as the Messiah? Or would I be skeptical like the Pharisees? Would I be listening at His feet like Mary, or missing the moment, like Martha?
Imagine what it was like to watch the prophecies of old unfold right before their very eyes!
Blessed were those eyes, Jesus said. Blessed indeed.
And us? We did not get to see it firsthand, but we have the opportunity to believe it by the Word of God passed down to us through generations—given and preserved for us by the Holy Spirit as He moved in those before us, recording it, translating it, at times smuggling it, all of which has made it available to us in the palm of our hands.
What a treasure we have in this blessed gift from God. And I’m thankful you are here with me, taking the time to slow down and not miss the moment, reading the good Word this Christmas, and delighting in remembering our Lord, the Word made flesh, who came and dwelt among us.
“Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.’” Luke 10:23-24
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29
“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31