For years, my commute was eight lanes of traffic, sometimes at breakneck speed, and then often slowing down to stop and go. It’s a blur of brake lights, frustration and impatience, just wanting to get to my destination. For the last couple years, my commute has turned north, out of the suburbs and onto a two-lane highway and country roads and into rolling plots of fields and woods.
In recent months, I’ve been turning off of that two-lane highway onto the country roads sooner and sooner because I love driving through the countryside watching the sun rise in the morning and set in the evening over those fields and tree.
There is one particular stretch that winds over a small creek, which looks beautiful in full autumn color, or especially under a fresh blanket of snow, and then leads to a four-way stop. I continue through winding through horse farms and open fields until I finally meander over to the state highway.
I had driven this route for a few months and just recently thought about how I have yet to see any wildlife, especially deer. When I actually thought about it, I couldn’t believe it considering the country I was driving through. I would see lots of horses, and there is nothing more beautiful than a horse grazing in a pasture, but wild whitetail deer always bring an excitement. They always have from as early as I could remember growing up. But as I would zoom through the countryside, I would get to work, or back to my house and not see anything.
Until I started looking… Because they were there. They have always been there. It wasn’t until I slowed down and started to truly seek them that I realized that they were there. And now I see them almost every day. They are here. Including the nice buck that crossed the road in front of me the other day, his broad antlers radiating in the sunshine. He was beautiful – just galloping across the road and trotting through the woods in that winding area by the stream. A truly amazing sight!
It’s Christmas Day. Jesus is here. Our Savior is born and a new light shines upon the earth. But the thing is, Jesus has always been here. True – He became flesh on this day, and He became one of us. But He was also there in the beginning with God the Father, and all things in this world were made though Him. All things beautiful and pleasant and joyful. All things wonderful and all things necessary.
He’s always been here, and He will always be here, in our heart and soul, in our circumstances and interactions with others, and yes on our daily commutes, whether it is on a busy expressway in bumper to bumper traffic, or on a country road, with the silhouette of a deer in the crisp, frosty, morning light.
Jesus is here in the flesh today and every day. And He’s always been with us alongside the roads we’re on in our ordinary daily lives, watching out for us – even when we didn’t notice Him. Especially when we didn’t notice Him.
But wow! When we do, when we slow down and look for Him, He is amazing! And He’s in the flesh – right there – in front of us!
Merry Christmas!
