All roads lead to JESUS

A few days before Christmas, I heard a friend speak about a loved one who would spend the “most wonderful time of the year” in a less than wonderful atmosphere.  She then recounted the glory of JESUS’s birth, all who were there to experience it and how it changed them…forever.

I have heard and read the Christmas story hundreds of times, and listened to countless sermons on it. But, through my friend’s circumstances, the LORD opened my eyes to it in a new way – all roads lead to JESUS.

As an adult, JESUS said “come to me…”  Without the ability to utter a word, while lying in a feed trough, HE did the same as a baby.  And, they came.  We come.

All from different backgrounds.  All from different circumstances.  All from different roads.

A poor, newlywed couple from Nazareth became unlikely parents because they followed and trusted the LORD’s promises.  Shepherds, working the graveyard shift near Bethlehem, were invited by an angel, and “the heavenly host” proclaiming the “good news,” to come.  Encouraged to “fear not”, they accepted.  Three “wise men,” “Magi,” would not let the distance from their far Eastern lands deter them from following the “star” to finally meet “the light of the world.”

All from different backgrounds.  All from different circumstances.  All from different roads.

At some appointed time, maybe more than once, our life will intersect with JESUS – a crossroads of the life we have chosen, and the one HE has prepared for us.  It happens to the Sauls in us all, on the Road to Damascus, for those who fish in vain,  women at the well and a thief on the cross.

All from different backgrounds.  All from different circumstances.  All from different roads.

With any crossroads, a decision must be made – to continue in the same direction or go another route.  This choice will render an eternal consequence.  Saul became Paul.  Fishermen became fishers of men.  Women at the well chose to drink from the “eternal fountain,” not life’s pleasures.  A thief destined for damnation took up residence in Paradise.

After seeing “a baby wrapped in cloths,” once “terrified” shepherds left and “spread the word…glorifying and praising GOD.”  Wise men who traveled one path to Bethlehem, “returned to their country by another route.”

An encounter with “the great I AM” will change who we are and send us down different roads…forever.

And there the CHRIST will await because HE knows all about roads.  HE understands how long and painful they can be.  With a cross upon HIS back and our sins soon to be hanging from it, HE traveled the toughest one of all – not because HE had to but because HE chose to.

We all come from different backgrounds.  We all come from different circumstances.  We all come from different roads.

No matter how many detours we have taken, all of us scarred and damaged wayward souls can take hope in the truth that, whether it is in Bethlehem or on Golgatha…all roads lead to JESUS.