What Will You Do With This Jesus?

This is a beautiful Christmas poem the Lord gave me this year. I hope it blesses you as it did me while I wrote it down. Afterward, I felt a real sense of urgency that our time is short.

What Will You Do With This Jesus?

Mary Jane Downs

December 15, 2018

Sitting here in my den filled with bright light

Thinking about that one blessed long ago night.

When the entire world was about to be forever changed,

But few even noticed…distracted by more “important” things.

The story of Jesus had started months before then

When an angel had visited Mary in her little den.

The prophets had for told that the Savior would come.

Now Mary was being told the Savior would be her son.

Mary and Joseph, her betrothed, went through horrible shame

Because people wouldn’t believe what God had proclaimed.

The gift that He had promised for so many centuries

Was now coming in a way that seemed to them too mysterious.

Still…on that blessed night, all went according to God’s holy design.

Jesus was born without any thought or plan from mankind.

He lay in that out-of-the-way straw-filled manager for all to see.

But only a few shepherds and three wise men felt the need.

Incredulously you may say, well…if the birth happened today,

We, the enlightened, would be much more aware than they!

How could they let such a glorious event pass them by?

“I” would have surely done more when Jesus arrived!

It’s sad to say that today not much has changed.

Man desiring more temporal earthly treasures to gain.

Jesus has lived among us through the Holy Spirit for over 2000 years

And most of the world still ignores Him or jeers.

So now I look to you and say with love

“What will you do with this Jesus, God’s son?

Is He more significant then your “important” earthly plans?

Will you bow at the manger and hold His divine hand?

Everyone has to make the choice for themselves,

Accept God’s gift or place Him up on your dusty shelf.

You have only this lifetime for that conscience decision.

Choose wisely, my friend, it will be eternally written.

Micah 6:8 

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourselves and walk humbly with your God?

Deuteronomy 10:12

And now, Israel, what does the Lord you Go require of you but reverently to fear the Lord your God, this is to walk in all His ways and to love Him. And to serve the Lord your God with all your mind and heart and with your entire being. 

Poems the Lord gives me usually form a picture when I complete and center them. 

Can you see the picture in this one?

I had just bought one in preparation for the snowstorm we just had here in Western NC.

It's a Coleman lantern on a table (or life's foundation).

What To Do With Santa Claus

Several months ago, my daughter–in-law, Leslie, asked me this question:

“What do I do with Santa Claus?”

I have known for a while that my heart and my head were not in agreement over the Santa Claus issue. I want to save my childhood tradition and yet knowing it interfered with the true meaning of Christmas. So… I prayed that God would show me the way to go. 

I started out by asking other Christians what they thought about Santa Claus. As you can imagine, I got a variety of answers. However, the one by which the Holy Spirit used to touch my heart the most came from a close friend. She told me about believing in Santa as a child and all the joy it had held for her. When she was seven, her parents told her the truth about who Santa really was. She was devastated. The revelation caused such a lack of trust towards her parents that she began rethinking everything her parents had ever told her. She even questioned the truths about Jesus. Was He a fake too?

For me, to keep endorsing Santa in my traditional way would be continuing to promote the same lie and distracting from the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ. The Santa of today has developed into a giving machine for our materialistic desires. Santa can give us anything we desire if we are good. In holding on to this tradition, aren't I leading others to believe that earthly figures can produce the same supernatural results as God Himself, if they only believe. Is that really what I want to portray in the end?

Why should I promote the lie when I can promote the real thing? Jesus IS the only true giver of everlasting love, peace and joy. Jesus came to give us life and to bless us abundantly. When we receive Him into our hearts, we have an eternal relationship without any more shame, guilt, and condemnation ever again. His blessings of healing, protection and provision are not dependent on whether we are naughty or nice. Jesus is the true miracle worker.

Honestly, I feel like Santa has to die in my heart again like he did long ago. The feeling of not wanting to let go tells me Santa is a stronghold in my life that needs to come down. 

I desire Christmas to be about the supernatural birth of my Savior not the world’s materialistic Santa. I want to tell the world that God loved mankind so much that he initiated the process to save all from the power of sin through His son Jesus. 

I am letting go of the false now. Truth and its lasting joy is flooding my soul with peace and fulfillment. Thank you Jesus for Your patience in the process.

Can I inspire that joyous expectation  without Santa Claus? Sure I can. It may be a challenge. However, if I seek God’s ways, His creativity will inspire the way.