I was at the grocery store tonight waiting in line to check out and I did what I always do. I picked up one of the more "reputable" tabloids and for a few minutes I dove into the world of expensive dresses, fancy jewelry, and outrageous lives. I read story after story about things I know I will never experience and I found myself thinking, "There's no way these people are REAL." No one lives like this. No one experiences these things. No one travels around with crowds of people. No one speaks a sentence and the world hears about it in 24 hours. No one influences people by just wearing a certain color or changing their hair style. No one laughs and then the world laughs. No one lives this BIG. No way. I'll never see these people in person. I'll never touch them or talk to them. Celebrities just can't be "real".
I came home and sat down and looked at my Christmas tree. My eyes traveled to the star on top and I started to reflect on Christmas. Do I ever feel that way about God? We talk to Him daily and we read His word. We don't touch Him and we won't see Him until the end. Regardless, the reality is sometimes I start to think of God like a rock star. He's a figure out there somewhere who is so big and so untouchable that He couldn't have ACTUALLY been here. He walked around with crowds following Him. He influenced people with just a touch, a glance, a breath. He spoke and thousands of years later, people still hear it. But He is real. He was born and we celebrate it every year. He died and we observe that, too. He rose and we marvel. He's the unbelievable, the miraculous, made flesh.
My life has been a little surreal lately. I'm facing some trials and the people around me are too. It can get hard to have faith. We all walk this unimaginable line between belief and disbelief, joy and sorrow, peace and chaos. It's a little like standing on the surface of the moon at that place where the light ends and the dark begins. A lot of people I know are standing there now, myself included. We have no idea what lies in front of us. We can only trust there is a plan and a purpose; that something is actually there in that dark place. A few thousand years ago, a group of shepherds sat in the dark looking at the sky. A star appeared and they followed it. At the end of their journey they found the ultimate wonder - a child they worshiped and touched. The first celebrity. And they were star struck too.
