When I was in college, I enjoyed playing intramural sports. I spent most of my time playing in the volleyball leagues, but I also dabbled in a couple others as well. I played on a couple flag football teams, which were fun; but somehow I allowed myself to be talked into playing on a co-ed soccer team. This is, to this day, one of the greater lapses in judgment of my life.
I don't really do soccer. And yet, this time, I did. Kind of.
For most of the games, I played back as a defender. But in one of our last games I played more in the midfield for some reason. There was this one moment in that particular game when I found myself with the ball, in the middle of open field, running towards the goal. How I got into that situation is a blur. My plan though, as it often was in these games, was just to dish the ball off to one of my teammates that actually played soccer growing up and then get the heck out of dodge as fast as possible. But a couple of my teammates were yelling for me to take a shot at the goal, so I guess I did. 'I guess' because the shot was so unbelievably awful. Like, was I actually aiming for the goal? Or for the bushes to the left? Way to the left.... I suppose we'll never know. Either way, a teammate somewhat nearby my 'shot' magically stretched out his foot as far as he could. His toes just glanced the ball, completely changing its direction from way off to barley into the left corner of the goal. I think some of my teammates believed that this was an intentional set-up on my part (nope), so they came over and celebrated me... which I found super odd. I didn't score the goal. Colby's pinky toe did. But I enjoyed the moment and then proceeded to absolutely stink it up in the rest of the game.
This little touch of the toe, the tiniest of tap, resulted in a dramatic deflection. A big miss turned into a big win. An honest, though truly terrible, effort paid off because someone with far greater experience was able to come to my aid and get the job done.
Oddly enough, this experience is not too far off from how Christ works in our lives.
You might call Him, as one of my coworkers taught this past summer, "The Great Deflector."
We see a couple examples of this in this past week's New Testament chapters: first in the shepherds, then the wisemen.
The Shepherds (Luke 2)
We all know these verses. Mary and Joseph find no room in the inn, so she gives birth to Jesus elsewhere and lays him in a manger. In the same country and on that same night, there are shepherds watching over their flocks. Probably of humble circumstances, likely wandering minds and idle conversation as the world around them comes to a still with the fall of the sun, possibly watching over the very flocks that raised lambs for temple sacrifice and for Passover - these ordinary shepherds were about to have the shock of their lives. A heavenly messenger appears, tells them not to fear, and announces that they come with good news: a Savior, the Messiah, your Lord has come. A host of angels then join the original messenger, sing praises to God, and then leave.
The shepherds, surely shocked and probably needing a moment to gather themselves, then decide the following:
Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child (Luke 2:15-17).
They immediately go. They make haste to go. And then? They do not return to their field. They do not go home and sleep on it. They make it known abroad.
They seek the Savior, the Messiah, their Lord. They find him. And then they are redirected. Deflected off of their fixed mortal course and forever changed. They glorify God and make known all they have seen and heard. It will be decades until they maybe begin hearing of the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth. Decades until they maybe hear about a man claiming to be the Great I Am, the Son of God. But this night? This holy night? They have come unto Christ and their course has been changed.
The Wisemen (Matthew 2)
The wisemen, though not technically part of the early nativity scene, are my favorite part of the Christmas story. And we all know these verses too.
Wisemen from the east come to Herod seeking the King of the Jews. They have seen 'his star' and have come to worship him. Herod hears of the prophecy of the Messiah and sends the wisemen to find this king so that he might "worship him also" (major eyeroll @Herod). Definitely students of prophetic scripture, so much so that they, unlike so many others studying the same writings, had an idea of a timeline for the birth of the Messiah as well as a knowledge of a star that would be a sign of his birth and a guide to find him.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way (Matthew 2:11-12).
They travel far. They worship Jesus with gifts. And then? They depart another way. They do not return to Herod, they do not even leave by the route they came. You've heard the phrase 'wisemen still seek Him?' Yes, and, once they find Him, they go another way.
They seek the Savior, the Messiah, their Lord. They find him. And then they are redirected. Deflected off of their fixed mortal course and forever changed. They likely will not hear about the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth. Nor about a man claiming to be the Great I Am, the Son of God. But this day? This holy day? They have come unto Christ and their course has been changed.
Jesus Doesn't Miss
With the shepherds and the wisemen, with Saul, with each of His apostles, with Alma the Younger, and with each of us the Savior takes our course of life and, if we will just choose Him as our teammate, gently nudges us in a different direction - His direction.
As Christians, we often have a fixed focus on this "coming unto Christ." Whether it be in the scriptures or in a church, by repenting or serving others, on our knees or in a temple, coming to Christ can look different throughout our lives. But these stories show us that it is not the end once we find Him. No, coming to Christ is a beginning.
We read our scriptures and we pray our prayers. We go to church and make our way to the temple. We do our ministering and we keep the commandments. We listen to songs about Him and hang up paintings of Him. And then we take what we've heard and seen and lived abroad. We tell others of this Christ that we have been so lucky to find. We allow Him to change our direction and change our hearts as we choose to go another way - His way. It suddenly all becomes far less about doing and far more about becoming.
I can't count the number of times that I have flailed my way through this soccer field of life, with a trajectory to certainly miss the goal by a mile, only to have my Savior come to my aid and gently tap me onto a different course. And I still continue to flail and fail. We are going to make absolutely absurd shots the entire duration of our lives - shots that are way, way to the left. But the whole purpose in coming unto Christ and finding Him is so we will have faith through our flailings and failings that we have a teammate on the field who is perfect and capable in every single way when we most certainly are not. A teammate who reaches out to nudge us in a better direction, His direction. A teammate who has already played the entire game, already won it all, and is here to help us enjoy it a little more, get through it a little better, and come out on the other side a little more like Him.
That teammate is Jesus.
And Jesus doesn't miss.
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