Dude, God is Crazy!

I just got back from the Living Christmas Trees, a show that Grace at Polaris puts on every year, and my family has gone to every year. All my cousins say that its not Christmas till we go see the Trees. We love it, its big by church theatre standards, but it still has its quirks :)

This year got me thinking (a dangerous past-time). I should explain real quick. Every year it bases around a story, usually modern, and someone starts to talk about the Christmas story. So they go back and forth between the contemporary and the biblical stories, all the way up to the Resurrection. The modern story changes every year which is why we can be so eager to see it again and again. Alright, so this year's was sad. It was based around a family who's daughter had just lost her husband overseas in the war. She was hurting and was mad at God, and her parents were hurting because there was nothing they could do.

With that being said, the Jesus parts were what I was interested in. They did some interesting things this year. When Jesus is being nailed to the cross, everything slows down and a little boy in white, an angel, steps down and sings this little sad song. It was a beautiful moment. When Jesus is born, there are girl angels that show up and dance, and then enter the Warrior Angels. Big guys with full wings and flaming swords!

And here's where my mind wanders to. God is crazy! The reason people call Jesus' story the Greatest Story Ever Told is because there would be no way you could make it up. God is in Heaven, a perfect place, surrounded by people and angels that adore Him. But for some reason he can't stop watching these people. Jerks, really. Horrible people who hate each other, kill each other, care only for themselves and ruin almost everything they touch. This plague is infesting every single one of them, a plague that THEY created and are completely unable to fix. God, for some strange reason, falls in love with them. And it kills Him to see them suffering and dying from this plague of sin. So He decides that He's gonna fix it.

But there's a cost. The plague is a tricky thing, with rules that must be adhered to. A sacrifice is needed to clean the heart. But one sacrifice can really only clean one heart, and because its an imperfect sacrifice, the healing won't last. So God decides to do the one thing that can truly destroy the plague, something that is only within His power. He'll make the sacrifice Himself.

But a personal sacrifice is not enough. Any Father will gladly jump in front of a bullet to save his wife or kids. No, He decides to do the most painful and powerful thing ever. He sacrifices His Son. But its not that simple! First He takes Him out of His place of prestige at the Father's side, sends Him to the mud with all those wretches that He loves but who hate Him, and lets them carry out the sacrifice themselves. And you know what's really insane? Jesus, His perfect Son, is willing to go along with it.

Watching those angels tonight surrounding Jesus as a baby, walking around Him so restrained as the insects nail Him to two hunks of wood... all I could think of is, God is CRAZY! How did He have the will to let this happen? How could He watch as His perfect Son was maimed? How did the angels hold themselves back and not rush to their King's aid? Who would have ever thought that all of this would have worked out? And most of all, why does He love us enough to go through all of this?

A long time ago a friend of mine said he imagined Jesus in Heaven before he was sent to Earth talking with His friends, telling them this idea He had to save the world. And all His friends could say to Him was, "Dude, you're gonna get yourself killed!"
To which he replied... "I know."

Its a magnificent story.



I wish I could be that brave.