[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Friday December 9, 2005

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotion Friday December 9, 2005

The Devotions this week are written by Erin Anderson, interim director of
Young Discipleship at Zion. Her theme is Preparing for Narnia, Preparing for
Jesus.        

Aslan

So here we are. Today's the day we have been waiting for.  We get to see the
movie The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  The time to see Aslan, the King
of Narnia, son of the Emperor across the sea, the Great Lion has almost
arrived.  What excitement, what joy!  But can we wait only a few more
hours??

  

Can we wait for the coming of Christ?  We are nearing the end of the second
week of Advent, but there are still two more to go.  The season of Christmas
seems in full swing as students soon let out on break, festival parties are
attended and the pressures of finding gifts for the whole family loom in the
back of our heads.  Nevertheless we can remain focused.  Attentive to what
Christmas is about and about who is coming.  Christ is coming!  The King,
though he be born of such lowly means, is coming to save us.

Aslan has returned to the land of Narnia, to rid it of the doom of the White
Witch.  She has been made powerless. For a time she thought she would surely
prove to be the most high though, for Aslan has made a deal with her.  He
would take Edmunds place.  He would be sacrificed instead for the "deeper
magic from the dawn of time" says that every traitor belongs to the White
Witch and that she has the right to kill them.

 

What Aslan did for Edmund mirrors what God did for us.  Adam and Eve
rebelled, we as humans are sinful, we all deserved death.  We have failed to
be what God created us to be.  But God is in love with us, and the thought
of spending eternity without us is unacceptable.  So God comes after us.  It
doesn't matter what we've done or said; God loves us too much to let us go.
Whatever it takes, to get us back, God will do!

 

"What ever it takes meant death.  To save us, God would have to die in our
place.  It didn't deter him for a moment.  He loved us that much.  God came
to earth as the man called Jesus and died, nailed to a Roman executioner's
cross.  And because he did that for us, we, like Edmund in Narnia, are
rescued from death..Jesus' sacrifice rescues us.Because without Jesus' death
to pay the price for our rebellion and forgive us for it, we would have no
escape from the doom of the law that says rebels against God deserve eternal
death."  (from Thomas Williams' Knowing Aslan)

 

It's that deeper magic from the dawn of time.  God's laws of the Old
Testament meant we were damned, but God ushered in a new law, a new
covenant, and new command at the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.  

 

Our Aslan, the Great Lion, who gives up his life for a foolish little boy,
is Jesus Christ our Savior, who gave up his life for the foolishness of all
men, women, girls and boys.  He now draws us all in and ultimately all of
creation.  To unite us with our Maker, and to know God's peace that passes
all understanding.  May we wait patiently, yet with unquenchable enthusiasm
for the day of His arrival.  Come Emmanuel Come! Come Great One Come! Come
Creator God Come!

 

Luke 23:8-12, 33-38  &   John 3:16-17

 

Great God of all creation, bring us back to You.  Thank you for sending your
Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, for our sins.  Help us continue to seek
out your will in our lives and to understand your ways.  May we grab hold of
your unconditional love and unfathomable peace as we draw nearer to
Christmas.  And instill in us fervor and fortitude as we await Your coming.
Amen.

 

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