I was three years younger than my brother who was a rising basketball star in High School and one free afternoon at my middle school we were playing a pick-up game with some friends and my middle school teacher and the JV basketball coach at the neighboring high school.
My memory is a bit blurry as to how that game progressed. A few people were watching in the stands, but mostly these important people in my life were on the floor. That JV coach would eventually give me my only organized sports experience at any level. My Middle School teacher didn’t dislike me, but every day I spent with him in class seemed like another day I fell short of impressing him. My brother Bob was there to play basketball and didn’t care about who was there.
The life lesson that changed me is still very vivid. There came a point in that game where Bob kept passing me the ball because I was open and could shoot. I don’t know what trust he had in me to make the shot but I obviously had no confidence in this setting so I kept passing the ball away to another. Was I afraid to take a shot and miss? Likely. That didn’t matter. In the middle of that game, Bob told everyone to stop, came over to me, and very loudly so that all could hear, yelled at me to take the shot, get in the game, or get off the court.
I was embarrassed beyond belief. Looking back, that really doesn’t matter. But, two things happened that day. The first was that I started to get in the game. I was the play-maker, the point guard. I took shots. Some of them missed, but some didn’t. And the second thing that happened was that I never forgot that day.
You may have experienced many Christmases by now. You’ve given and received presents, attended Christmas Eve services for years or helped out in the nursery when those kids are just going nuts. Those three dreaded words, “some assembly required,” have become part of your Christmas lexicon for years.
And you’ve had the ball in your hands many times, but you never have taken the shot. You’ve passed it away. God loves you so much. Jesus Christ has passed you the ball every year. Why do you hesitate to fully accept Him and His sacrifice for you? He holds out His hands to you every year, wanting you to accept Him. That’s what taking the shot is all about with Him. Sure, you have to get in “the game.” He wants you to learn of Him and live victoriously—even though some of your shots will miss the mark. It doesn’t matter to Him that you make every shot—just that you take the shot.
We celebrate Christmas to remind us that Christ is the joy of man’s desiring. The Angels are in the stands. God is watching us from His wider reality that is all around us. Jesus came to give us a shot at God’s love. All we have to do is shoot. We’ll miss 100% of the shots we don’t take.
So, go ahead, muster the stuff of faith, discover His limitless hope, and find love at Christmastime like you never have before. It’s right there, in your hands.