More than a baby, Much more

The Christmas season has begun.  Lights are going up.  Wreaths and garland and Christmas music.  It's that time of year that we try to celebrate Jesus' coming more than Santa's, although Eloise already told me she'd rather have Santa than "just a baby."

To her, Jesus is just the baby that she plays with in the Nativity.  And with her little sister annoying her more each day, I can understand how the idea of another baby is not really very appealing to her.  I hope though, that some day she will see Jesus as more than just a little baby.

We went downtown with all the tourists on Saturday afternoon.  The hustle and bustle of everyone was fun even if we we only rode the carousel and didn't see the museum exhibits that Alex and I wanted to see.  There were some Christian tracks laying on the ground.  It was put out by a messianic Jewish group appealing to Jews to consider that Jesus is the Lord and Savior that God has promised them.  We picked it up and read it.  It was a solid, non-offensive track about who we believe Jesus is.

There's no doubt that Jesus lived but there is question as to who he was.  Just another prophet, a lunatic, or really the son of God.  And if he was/is the son of God, why did he die on the cross?  Like the skeptics said, if he was the son of God, why didn't his father save him?

Then we were home and I was listening to some Sufjan Stevens.  Who I think is an amazing artist.  My brother thinks he makes elf music and doesn't like him very much, but I do.  I love him.  I also love The Welcome Wagon, a band that he produces.  The Welcome Wagon is a Christian band.

I was listening to his Illinois album while cooking in the kitchen but stopped chopping when the song John Wayne Gacy, Jr. came to an end.  Because the ending is alarming.  Because the song is sick.  It's about John Wayne Gacy Jr, a serial killer from Chicago who dressed up as a clown and killed and raped 33 teenage boys and buried them in the floorboards in his house.  The song is not an easy listen.

Then Sufjan gets to the end and says this, 

And in my best behavior

I am really just like him

Look beneath the floorboards

For the secrets I have hid

Sick!  No, Sufjan is not a serial killer.  Why would he say that?  I'm sure there has been lots of chatter about this song.  But I have my own ideas.

It has be that Sufjan is a Christian.  And that he knows that the sin that taints him taints everyone else.  And so that we are all in the same boat of evil and death.  We all have floorboards where some ugly is hidden.  And unless there is someone who saves us , we will all drown.  For we are all the same.  Wicked.  We are all wicked.

And that Jesus is more than a baby.  And he did die on the cross for a reason.  To shed his blood so that we wouldn't have to.  I think only with that knowledge could someone say that he was like John Wayne Gacy Jr.

So my day ended with lots of thoughts about Jesus.  And I'm thankful that he is more than a prophet because I don't need a prophet.  I need a savior.  A savior to save me from the secrets in my floorboards.