Advent Devotional - Day 6

Friday, December 4
Colossians 1:25-29

When I was younger, there were two Christmas presents that I was most excited about opening. (And no, neither of them were the inevitable underwear we’d find in our stockings. Thanks Santa…) The first was whatever big present I’d asked for, which I got about half the time. The other was batteries, because more often than not, my presents were going to need batteries. Whether that was a glow-in-the-dark Nerf football or a Tamagachi (look it up if you weren’t a child of the 90’s), the best toys needed power to run.

And in the 90’s everyone knew the best battery for the job was Energizer. The commercials of a bunny who kept going and going and going had me convinced that Energizer batteries never ran out. They must have been attached to some kind of energy source that filled them at all times, because if the bunny never stopped, the batteries shouldn’t stop either.

We work in a similar way. Just like that Nerf football, we’ve been made (read: YOU’VE been made) for a purpose. You were created to help bring light into the world. But that’s not your light, and if it’s all about your energy, eventually that will run out. No, we’re meant to reflect God’s light as Jesus lives in us. Jesus is the engine that drives us forward, calling us towards what God is doing in the world and giving us the energy to follow. As disciples, we’re meant to be people imitating Jesus who is alive in us.

C.S. Lewis perhaps said it best. “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself are simply a waste of time.  God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.” You were made creatively to reflect Jesus in the world, to be a “little Christ.” Let that light shine for others to see Jesus at work in you.

Reflection by Martin Leathers