"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." ~Isaiah 9:6
I say the word "wonderful" pretty frequently. However, I've decided to start using it with more care. Though I have been hearing this verse for as long as I can remember, I actually just realized that one of the Son's names is Wonderful.
Meaning? Inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous. A few synonyms are superb, magnificent, and glorious.
How perfect. The Child that was born, the Son that was given, the Lamb that was sacrificed, only He is truly Wonderful.
In a way, I feel like the word "wonderful" is a bit like the word "love". We say we love a movie, we say a pair of shoes is wonderful, but what we are doing is devaluing the words. Would you give your life for a movie? Or compare shoes to the Prince of Peace? It's a little hard for me to consider not saying things are wonderful because I think a lot of words have just lost their true meaning and we need to resort to stronger words to express ourselves. I will probably continue to say things are wonderful because words like "good" and "nice" just don't sound excited enough. But, it's something to think about. How often do I say "wonderful" about something that couldn't possibly compare to Jesus?
On another note, I was just thinking about how Christmas is now "over". The excitement has waned, the presents have been unwrapped leaving little scraps of brightly colored paper around, and it's now time to finish up with the Christmas music and start thinking about putting decorations away. My question is, is Christmas really ever over? Why do we need to confine celebration of Christ's birth to December 25th? (We don't even know for sure if He was actually born on that day...) No, we won't give and receive gifts every day, and yes the music will fade out eventually, sorry. But, Christmas was never about the gifts and music...right? It was about Jesus humbling Himself and coming down into our pathetic little world to save a bunch of pathetic sinners because He loved us.
The Christmas holiday and "season" are over, yes. But, the Christmas meaning is eternal.
And, it's Wonderful.
Nope. Christmas doesn't need to fade. That's why we are now going to have a very unofficial Christmas on March 18th, 2014! It'll keep us going in the midst of the Winter blues. Okay? We'll do the whole thing all over again! =D
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, Christmas can be celebrated all the time. And you really get to the bones of what Christmas is about when you think about it that way. It's not the glitter and glam, it's the heart..because that's what it's all about.
Wait, I didn't mean to send that comment. =P Anyway, yes, whichever one, sounds fun!!
DeleteYes exactly! I don't like all the glitter and glam anyway. Just some of it...;)
March 18, or January 18??
ReplyDelete