I Am Not A Victim: The Christian Life Is An Abundant Life

“Slats Grobnik scratched out a few bucks selling Christmas trees. Just before Christmas, when all the trees had been picked over, a ragged couple came onto the lot. As they turned the price tag over on each tree, it was obvious that they didn’t have enough money to buy one. Then the woman spied a discarded Scotch pine. It didn’t look so bad on one side, but it was terribly scrawny on the other. Not far away stood another pitiful tree with the needles on one side eaten away.

The woman whispered in her husband’s ears, and he asked if three dollars would be enough to buy both trees. Slats figured that he couldn’t sell them anyway, so he agreed. He watched as the couple dragged their two scraggly trees away, leaving a trail of pine needles in their wake.

A few evenings later, Slats was walking home when he spied a magnificent Christmas tree in the window of a dilapidated apartment building. Then Slats saw the ragged couple sitting on the porch out front. “That’s a beautiful tree up in the window,” exclaimed Slats. “Yep,” replied the man with pride. “That’s our tree. Actually, it’s the two trees we bought from you.” “How can that be?” asked Slats. “I sold you the two worst trees on the lot.” “I know,” the man responded. “But my missus is clever. She had me work the trees together where the branches are bare. We formed one tree out of the two and wired them together."

Slats Grobnik learned a secret that night. “You take two trees that aren’t perfect, that have flaws, that might even be homely, that maybe nobody else would want. But if you put them together just right, you can come up with something really beautiful.”

Christmas is the story of God taking the flawed and making it beautiful. God can wire together an ordinary carpenter, an unwed teenage girl, a handful of shepherds, prostitutes, tax collectors, and flawed disciples to tell a Christmas story that brings joy to the whole world. When you feel like you are just a little person in a little place, take time to remember Slats Grobnik’s amazing Christmas story.

God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.-1 Cor 1:28” -James Petterson, The One Year Book of Amazing Stories (abridged)

God takes us who are like the scrawny broken Christmas trees, and he decorates us, wraps us in garland, waters us, nurtures us, and makes us into something truly new and beautiful.

You see someone who used to be afraid, broken, quiet, and shallow, and they come to Jesus Christ and they become someone very different, whole, complete, less afraid, more confident, wise, and true.

God takes broken things and makes them new. And abundantly new. Abundantly beautiful.

He takes us who were depressed, hurting, beaten by life, who had become bitter, and he doesn’t just add a few new things to cover the old, he heals those places, and decks us out in bulbs, lights, ornaments, stars, candy canes, and as he works on us we smile, and as he completes the work, we glow as a new hero.

Why? Because of our foundation scripture for today, found in John 10:10: Jesus said: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10, NRSV)

The Greek word here for “abundantly” is perissos

Pronunciation: per-is-sos'

The definition is: over and above, more than is necessary, superadded, exceeding abundantly, supremely

pre-eminence, superiority, advantage, more eminent, more remarkable, more excellent

It brings to mind the classic Psalm 23, which describes this abundant life of a follower of the messiah.

“1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.”

One thing you must keep at the center of your mind and heart is that the Christian life is an abundant life.

And I think Psalm 23 really defines what that means.

It means my cup overflows.

But it doesn’t mean we won’t have enemies. In Psalm 23 we see God prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. So there are enemies, but God prepares a banquet for me in front of them.