Because Jesus Was There

For Lent my wife and I are taking up reading the Gospels. We are reading through them together in the mornings and individually at night. So over the next 40 days we will each read through all 4 Gospels twice. Pretty great idea, right?

Well, today is Day 1 and we read Matthew 1 - 3.

What really jumped out to me today was where the Magi saw the star, followed it and went to worship Jesus.

So what? That doesn't seem very "deep."

Well, hear me out.

They didn't go to worship because they heard that the stable was nice.

They didn't go to worship because they saw a slick looking high-gloss poster at a coffee shop in Jerusalem.

They didn't go to worship because they were invited by a friend.

They went to worship because Jesus was there.

In today's world we try and make "church" about a lot of things. The songs, the teaching, the children's ministry, the greeters and the bulletin, when the reality is that if "church" is about anything other than Jesus, we have missed the point.

So that is my prayer for my wife, for myself, and for anyone celebrating Lent. That this season would be all about Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less.