Before the Huaylas Quechua people of Peru had a New Testament in their language, a local friend and I began a Bible study for a group of grannies who lived in our neighborhood. Using a cassette recording of the book of Luke in Quechua, each week we listened to a section of Scripture and then re-told the story with flannelgraph figures.
I thought we would fly through the book of Luke, but this was the first time the Quechua ladies had ever heard the Scripture in their own language. They had a very rudimentary knowledge of Bible stories from things they had heard in Spanish, but when they listened in Quechua, they were captivated! And they loved studying the colorful flannelgraph figures that I passed around before putting each one up on the board. If the figure was Jesus, each granny would look at him lovingly and then gently kiss his flannel face before passing him along to the next lady.
These dear old women amazed me with their sincere adoration of Jesus, even before they truly knew him. And that adoration only grew deeper once they had heard enough of His message to become his children.
The Wise Men mentioned in the Christmas story were likely similar to my Quechua grannies in the fact that they knew something ABOUT Jesus, but didn’t truly KNOW him. They weren’t Jewish, and they certainly wouldn’t have been considered believers in God. Nevertheless, when they saw the star that announced the Messiah’s birth, they immediately packed their camels with expensive gifts and made the long journey to Jerusalem to worship him!
I’m humbled by these people who so sincerely adored Jesus, even before they knew him personally. I’ve known Jesus most of my life, and I can’t honestly remember a time when I adored him with the simple love of the Quechua grannies, or with the amazing extravagance of the Wise Men. But I would like to find myself in that position… wouldn’t you?
Have you found yourself (like me) at a place or time in your life where you’ve forgotten what it means to truly adore Jesus? What is one simple thing you could do today (maybe even right now) to start making changes?
As I finished writing this devotional, I took several minutes to listen to and sing along with different versions of “Oh, Come let us Adore Him.” That Christmas tune led me into singing along with other songs of adoration, and before long, my entire afternoon was brighter. I think it must have brightened my face, too, because when I walked out my front door a few minutes later, I noticed that I was attracting smiles from people I had never seen before. Two little girls even called out to me, “You look pretty!” I was in a plain, navy blue sweatshirt and on my way to the gym (in other words, not looking that great) so it must have been the joy of adoration that they were seeing on my face! My heart felt much lighter, too, so I think this idea of spending a few minutes singing along with praise songs is something I’ll add to my afternoons on a more regular basis.