4th Day of Christmas

ON THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, four calling birds. Keeping in the tradition of birds, our lover here is starting to look like Alfred Hitchcock more and more. These are four calling birds. They call. A lot. They are loud. Very loud. And in all honesty, the amount of noise these small animals make is astounding.

If you have ever been around a parrot who talks, you know they sound like a politician. They say only what they've been taught and when they open their mouths, it is annoying and shrill. Four of these birds is more than enough to push the boundary of sanity. Bird names are always deceiving too. Whenever I had a friend who owned a bird, they called it "Sweetheart" or "Baby." Far from the truth. They acted more like "Squaker" or, in keeping with the politician idea, "Nancy Poloski."

If I got these specific four birds as a gift though, I would name them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The fifth would be named Horatio but that is irrelavent. The original four stand for the gospels of the Bible- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are "calling" birds because they proclaim the name of the gospels. Normally, I would cringe at the warm feelings and church-y sound of this because when something is "churchy," it seems to diminish and water down the impact of something so powerful. But this time, I'll allow the church-y feel. It's Christmas.

In all honesty, these four books are shouted from the mountain tops all over the place. Churches have TV shows, outreach programs in colleges, youth groups for teens and tweens, Bible tracks- oh my gosh it is everywhere! As far as America is concerned, there is not a street corner that doesn't know something about the Bible or heard about Jesus. Heck, they same his name all the time, even if it's not in such a holy way. But they know about it at least. The reality of the situation is that nobody really knows the reality of how real it is. Lamen's Terms: Nobody really grasps all that Jesus did on this earth. These four books are a testament to what he did, but they aren't all he did. They cannot display his facial express or record his voice. They are only a small picture. But they call out every day. So, it is our duty to try and understand that magnitude. It is our job to grasp the reality of how great it is and was by living it every day. We must learn to be his facial expressions and his voice, or as the Bible says, his ambassadors (2 Chor. 5:20).

Philemon 6 says, "I pray you be active in sharing your faith so that you may have an understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." Being his ambassadors is a call to be a light in the things we do, not just the things we say. It is about trying to understand our Savior, our light. The fourth day is about understanding Light.

KB