Christ Tingle

Speaker: Justin Bradbury

Date: December 2009

Children's Christingle Talk

If you ask a 4 year old, or me, to draw their best friend, you get some surprising and funny pictures! In my case, the picture may or may not look like a real human being. The head may be too big or too small, and I will almost certainly miss something out. The human body is difficult to get right and I am a very bad artist. (Show picture of me by Charlie Archer)

If we are asked to describe Jesus, we would do the same thing. We would miss things out. We might focus on Him as a baby and forget that He was also a teacher and the Son of God, and a brother to James. There is so much of Jesus to understand. Our heads can’t take all of Him in.

But the good news is that Jesus wants us to experience Him more than to know things about Him. That’s where the word, “tingle” is helpful…

I have a chair for someone to sit in…

Now, this is a comfortable chair, but that’s where it ends. I can say it is comfortable and good-looking, but I can’t feel it.

But when I connect it to the power and start pressing some buttons, it comes alive. There is a tingling feeling. There is now a two-way relationship: it vibrates and you can feel it. (it's a massage chair!)

There are a lot of people who may be good at describing Jesus; they might have been learning about Him all their lives (going to church and stuff), but they have never experienced Him.

Jesus wants us to feel that tingle of being with Him, of being connected to Him and His power. If we only ever saw a drawing of our best friend and never sat in the same room as them or hugged them, we would not really get to know them well, would we? The picture would be flat.

So, Jesus wants us to know Him by feeling Him, by getting that tingling feeling when we accept the love only He can give us. Love from the big heart of Father God. Then we experience Him. And we are connected to the power that made every good living thing. We are then alive because we are related to God’s Son, Jesus. The best friend we could ever have or need.