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December 26 The day after Christmas is usually anti-climatic. But not this year. I awoke late this morning, wondering if last night has been real. Did God really give me, and explain through his Spirit, those four wonderful presents or was it a dream? Before I joined the family for a late breakfast I had to take another peak at Revelation 12, just to make sure. Indeed these gifts are real and they have been given to me, but that’s not what caught my attention this morning as I read. What grabbed me today was this line: “they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” Yes, the gifts are great, but the song from Revelation 12 was announcing something more. It wasn’t until later in the evening that I began to understand what that ‘something more’ was. Before going to bed my children asked for ‘one more story.’Actually, I was suspicious. After all, we had already read and talked and swapped stories of Christmases past. “Why are we here in Prague on Christmas, dad?” my second son asked, trying to stall bed-time. I sat in silence for a few moments, trying to figure out what to say. For some reason I responded with, “let me tell you a story of Cyril and Methodius.” I told them the story of two young brothers from Constantinople — Cyril and Methodius — who came to the Czech Lands over a thousand years ago. “They were bright, gifted young men who loved Jesus,” I told them. “They volunteered to come to this country many, many years ago because they heard the news that a wonderful people with a difficult language didn’t know about Christ — his birth, his life, his death and resurrection.They sacrificed much, suffering separation from family and friends, hardship and disappointment, sickness and exile, in order to testify to the grace of God.” As I said this last sentence I was struck by what I had read earlier this morning from Revelation 12: “they will overcome him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” Indeed because of Cyril and Methodius, because of their love for Jesus and their willingness to testify about the power of his blood, even in the face of great difficulty, the Czechs can know the good news. While sitting still, meditating on this truth, my son said, “I guess we are to be like those two brothers, aren’t we?” Yes, I suppose we are. |
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