We proclaim to You the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
– John 1:1-4 (NLT)
How would you answer the question, “What is the meaning of life?” That is a question all of us should grapple with. Life is extremely short, especially in comparison with eternity. We only have one shot at it, so it would make sense to figure out the real meaning of our existence on earth. To do so will enable us to figure out the best way to live a fulfilled life and accomplish all we can while we’re here.
Jonathan Gabay of England published a book containing the answers of well-known individuals to the above-mentioned question. One of them, a church leader, gave a fascinating testimony. As a child, he says, he watched his family’s black and white TV, wishing that he could see a clearer picture. He remembers being glad they had the opportunity to watch a blurred picture because some of his friends did not have a TV at all, but the static was a bit nerve wracking to his eyes. Then one day his family learned that an outside antenna was needed. “Suddenly”, he said, “we found that we could get clear and distinct pictures. Our enjoyment was transformed.” Then he drew this comparison: “Life without Christ is like the television set without an antenna.”
Let’s give that last statement a bit of thought. Without a knowledge of God and His purposes revealed in Scripture and in Jesus Christ, we finite humans with our sin-darkened minds have at best a blurred picture of the invisible, holy Creator. He is the One who created life – created our lives – and is the only One with life’s blue prints. Apart from an intimate knowledge of God Almighty we will never be able to discover the meaning of life in general and the meaning of our life in particular. But when we pick up the Bible and encounter Jesus, the Man who was God-in-the-flesh, the fuzziness vanishes. As Jesus Himself declared, “…Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9b NLT).
Christmas is just a few weeks away. We celebrate Jesus Christ coming to earth to reveal God and God’s plans to us in a way that we can comprehend. He came to die and be resurrected so we could enter into an eternal relationship with our Creator – with the One who is the meaning of life. The more we understand who God is and what He is about, the clearer it will be who we are and what we are to be about. The Bible is the antenna that brings Christ into focus and Christ is the antenna that gives us a clear and distinct picture of God the Father.
God wants you to know the meaning He has for your life. He wants you to know Him personally. He wants to reveal more and more of Himself to you and in so doing open up to your understanding a clearer picture of yourself and all you can be in Him. Will you ask God to take out all the fuzziness of your understanding of Him, so you can see Him for who He is? Will you make a commitment to make the task of revealing Him to others a greater priority in your everyday schedule? Will you permanently install the Bible antenna into your daily schedule so you can clearly see God for yourself and so you can do a better job of helping others to see Him?
—- Pastor Steve