“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39). There’s this old object lesson where you have a jar with some bigger rocks, some smaller pebbles, and a bunch of sand. If you try to put in the sand first, and then the little rocks, then the big rocks won’t fit. But if you put the biggest rocks in first, and then the pebbles, and finally the sand, then the littler pieces will fit in between the gaps of the bigger pieces. Jesus Christ is our rock. All of the little day to day worries and obsessions that we have are the sands of time that make up our life. If we get so concerned with making sure that we have enough room for the sand, then we won’t be able to fit Christ into it. “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39). We all want the most out of our lives. That means cramming just as much as we possibly can into our jars. We have to put Christ first or we will find other, less important things to take His place. Most of us read the story of the nativity and we shake our heads sadly when we read that there was no room in the inn for Jesus to be born, but how many of us tell Jesus, sorry, you’ve got to stay in the stable because I just don’t have room for you right now? Making Christ a priority means that we give our lives a shape and a structure and a purpose. Imagine instead of a jar, we have an hourglass. If we don’t bother putting the rock of our redeemer into our hourglass, then all of that sand is going into the top and right on through to the bottom. But if we put those rocks into our hour glass, then some of the sands of time, the best and the truest and the most beautiful and most valuable moments will collect onto that Rock and will be saved from going down the drain with everything else. If we are not careful, life will separate us from the love of God, but if we will just make room for Christ, then life is not what gets in the way of Christ, but Christ’s pure love touches and blesses and saves every precious moment of our lives.
