When Jesus Comes

“To Seek and To Save”

Advent 2019

As one of the fullest and most complete encounters of Jesus’s life, my good friend Jenni challenged me to read the entire Book of Luke this Advent season. This particular Gospel also includes the most commonly recited version of Jesus’s birth story. I thought, why not and began by reading the brief description given in my childhood Bible preceding the opening paragraphs of Luke. What I found there were eight little words that cut right to my core and are becoming my theme for the entire Advent season. These eight words are emboldening me to come off survival mode, turn off auto-pilot that becomes “just getting through the season,” and embrace the choice to cherish an ever-deepening understanding of what the Christmas and Advent season is all about.

I’ll get to what those eight powerful words were here in a moment, but let me start with this: How many of you feel like you already messed up Advent season?! I mean come on, I left Thanksgiving early to participate in the Black Friday (ahem, Thursday) shenanigans at Target. Along with my brother and some of my cousins, we giddily walked out of the housewares haven with a red cartful of shopping bags and a 55-inch flat-screen lodged diagonally like a mountain towering half-way out of another cart. I say this jokingly because Black Friday for us has become a family tradition. It’s something fun we do together. We rarely actually buy the big-ticket items if anything at all, but we like to see what all the fuss is about and find it a thrill to watch others participate in all the hype. It’s just a bonus if we knock a few items off our Christmas shopping lists while we’re at it. (And this year, we just happened to be charged with looking for a TV for someone else.)

Still, sometimes it feels like a battle between the commercial and the sacred, and my spirit is wrestling this constant push and pull between the two.

I’m already feeling that pull more than ever: this December came off of a roller coaster of a November. It was a busy season for my writing: as the month of all things Frozen for the Disney Gospels content of the blog, November was also the month I launched my blog shop and was a featured writer for Mops International. These goals reached came with their own lists of to-do’s, but we stopped to celebrate them along with my son’s 10^th birthday on November 20. The very next day, my beloved grandmother passed away, and I was filling the empty space of visiting her in her nursing home with writing an obituary and pulling together photos for her memorial service.

During this time, I’m convinced my four-year-old was feeling the push and pull between the hurried pace of life and the slower sacred spaces that are calling to us just as much as I was. Her everyday behavioral challenges, anxiety and OCD, sky-rocketed to a point of becoming incongruous with many daily activities. I found myself in an all-out mental and emotional survival mode trying to keep up with it all. For the first time in a long time, the Enneagram 2 “helper” in me (I’m a 2 and an 8) wanted to crawl in a hole and hope no one came and found me.

And so, with my heart weary, my soul more than a little downtrodden and in a bit of a self-induced spiritual desert, I found myself truly seeking out His Word for the first time in what would be considered a while for me. I’m so glad my friend reached out with this Advent reading challenge. In a preface[1] that was provided in my Bible to the Gospel of Luke, right away we are reminded how Jesus sought out and loved all kinds of people. He took special interest in the poor, the outcast, the women and children, the marginalized. He didn’t discriminate against nationality, race, background or sin-issue. His love was for all. In every condition. For the whole roller coaster ride. The Luke intro highlighted words and concepts like love, joy, hope, acceptance, salvation, gentleness and Good News. Those were welcoming words for me about now. Then, it hand-selected one verse from the entire book of Luke to summarize the life of Jesus and it was that He came “to seek and to save what was lost.” (19:10)

Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost in my life. He came once and for all to save all mankind from their sin. But He also comes every day to seek and to save my mental health. To seek and to save how I think about myself. To seek and to save where I’m putting all my time and energy because I think it adds value to who I am as a person.

If you’ve ever taken a personality test, you probably realize that though you will shift and grow, there are parts of you that just won’t change. There are certain things that will always be true of you. And there are certain things that will just always be true of Jesus, no matter what the context. He came to “seek and save what was lost.” It’s part of who He is. He sought you out on the cross and by grace and faith, you are forever found. The seeking and saving of you is already done, but the seeking and saving what is lost physically, mentally or emotionally, is an ongoing mission in which Jesus wants to participate in your life.

So, here are a couple of important questions I began asking myself: (pst! grab a journal and join the conversation)

1. On the bigger, more universal scale, what was lost in my life without Jesus? What was found?

2. On a smaller, more intimate scale, what’s been lost recently that Jesus can walk alongside and help me find again? Where do I see Him seeking and saving?

For me, I know that without Christ, I would be directionless, without hope for the afterlife. I’d be flailing, wondering, striving for a self-earned salvation. If I’m honest, though, I still sometimes live this way. But God is “seeking and saving what was lost.” He already sought me out and saved me. Now He’s seeking out every part of me that goes back into hiding. With every hardship and trial, I know He’s able to refine me more into His image. More importantly, He’s allowing me to truly know and be known (Philippians 3:10).

It’s easy to wonder if you are really beholding Christ’s birth with all the things that are calling for our attention this December. But it’s never too late to choose savoring over striving. To, like Mary, pursue quiet moments amidst the chaos, the pressure and the confusion, and to choose to treasure the sacred in our hearts. To daily stop to remember that Jesus came for you “to seek and to save what was lost.” A once and for all kind of pursuit of our souls which opened access to a daily pursuit of our wandering hearts.

An Advent Prayer for you:

Jesus, transform me today and this Christmas season with your love and power by the Holy Spirit. Guide me into a new way of living, where what was lost is found by You: where freedom, confidence, and righteousness are Your gifts for fully obtaining and where striving is replaced with joy.

We’re on a journey to remove the scales and reveal God in our everyday lives. You with me? SUBSCRIBE HERE.

[1] A preface or introduction included before each book in my particular Bible, not Scripture itself.

POSTED BY

Jenna

Jenna Kruse is a teacher but not in a classroom. She loves to think outside the box and inside the Word and is daily in need of an attitude adjustment. She is a wife to Justin, a mother to three children ages 10, 8 and 5 and a mentor to teenagers and young adults. You can learn more about the heart behind her blog HERE.

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