Profound

John 15:9 -- "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love."

Kicking the light snow off my shoes I fiddled around in the dark to line my car key up with the door lock without scratching it. I loved a good Tennessee winter and the crisp smell of freshly fallen snow on pine trees. I was too tired to enjoy the moment,  though - I had to get to my parents' home and bathe my eleven month old so I could get him to bed. Already past ten p.m., I had my job cut out for me. Brian could get wound up if he missed what I like to call his "sleep window". AND, I still had homework and some laundry to do before I could get a little shut-eye in order to get up at four a.m. so I could start the chaos all over again.

Looking back at the now-locked door of my "alma mater" I reached deep within myself to pull out some energy that I really didn't have and headed toward home. It occurred to me that my accounting class was going to be the death of me. Suddenly a divorced single mother - juggling a full-time job AND school AND a toddler could really take a lot out of a person. 

And then, right there in the dark, in the green glow of my car dashboard - I broke into a spontaneous grin. It felt good to really smile again. It had been a while since I'd known that warmth on my face and it actually kind of surprised me to feel it there. I had accidentally let my mind wonder while focused on the dark, winding Dickson County roads to avoid hitting deer when the jovial voice of Uncle Charlie Hawkins [fellow missionary to the Philippines] managed to break through the mental fog. Bouncing around in my head was the punch-line to an accounting joke he'd told me earlier in the week. IT made me smile.

It goes somewhat like this; In an office of a prestigious accounting firm there worked a legend in the field. He was a master at balancing out accounts and most people asked for him by name. Each morning, when he sat down to his desk, he'd open the top drawer and read a note that he'd taped to the bottom. Fellow employees could see his lips move as he chanted what words were printed inside that drawer.  He'd then close the drawer and lock it, ready to face the day. 

The office wanted to know what made this accounting legend so great at his job.  They longed to know what secret he kept locked in his desk drawer. One afternoon as the Legend left the office for lunch, a group of his co-workers broke into the desk drawer and read the mysterious mantra. They closed the drawer back and looked at each-other, speechless. Could it really be THAT simple?

Inside the drawer, handwritten on a yellowing piece of paper were the words: debits on the left, credits on the right. 

REALLY?!. THAT's the secret? Keeping your accounting ledger lined up is the FIRST and most SIMPLE thing you learn in accounting ..... this Legend of the prestigious accounting firm chanted THAT every morning?!

I laughed out loud, right there in the car all by myself. [Thank you, Uncle Charlie!]

The thing is - you and me? - much like the employees of the prestigious accounting firm, we tend to make things more complicated than they really are. There is one pretty simple, yet amazing, truth most of us learned a long time ago but frequently forget. I like the way Billy Graham put it when he told a little story about one of his good friends. This simple truth is rather profound.

Billy Graham once said of his friend and legendary theologian, Dr. Karl Barth, that he was the most ingenious philosopher of his day. Sharing a story about this great man, Mr. Graham told of an experience Dr. Barth had in a class-room full of students at the seminary where Dr. Barth was a professor. One young student, eager to learn real truth, timidly raised her hand and asked: what is the greatest truth that ever crossed your mind?

The entire group seemed to come to a stand-still as the room full of eager young minds pushed to the edge of their seats. On pins and needles the scholars strained to hear what great and powerful wisdom Dr. Barth would impart to the class.  Mr. Graham said that's when Dr. Barth slowly raised his great shaggy gray head and looked at the student and said, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

There in the dark, bone tired and angry at myself for the mess I'd made of my life at the ripe old age of 22, I laughed out loud. I began to sing "Jesus Loves Me" at the top of my lungs. What greater joy is there than that?! My Jesus loves me. He told me so in the Bible! And not just with the simple words "I love you" - but with the deep and amazing precedence that - as God THE Father loves His Son so also does Jesus love me! So great is this love that Jesus died on the cross to ensure that I - calamity prone sinner - could be with Him in eternity!!

In this month of Christmas Joy - as we light the tree and purchase wrapping paper only to discover we already had some crammed into the back of the closet - let us cling to the REAL joy of the season! Jesus loves us! THAT is why we celebrate His birth!!