Everything's Coming Up Roses

In case you haven't heard, the University of Wisconsin Badgers are going to the Rose Bowl this year. The whole BCS thing confuses me (is there anyone who is not confused by it? If so, please - don't feel the need to enlighten me); didn't it used to be that the two teams playing in the Rose Bowl were thought to be the best in the nation?

Whether they are ranked in the top two or the third or fourth slot, the fact remains that they worked very hard to get where they are.

But even before the bid officially went out, the local news stations were running stories warning potential ticket buyers to be wary of scams.  The last time the Badgers went to Pasadena, thirteen hundred Wisconsin fans showed up, only to discover they had been tricked, and had no tickets to the game.

The public in general always seems to be surprised when things like this happen.  Many live their lives believing that people are basically good, that those who would take advantage of or harm others are the exception rather than the rule.

Not true.

In fact, the Bible makes it very clear that every one of us is morally bankrupt, black hearted and sinful by nature.  Just a few examples come to mind:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  Jeremiah 17:9

...as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known."

Romans 10:3 - 17, where Paul quotes a series of Old Testament sources

Paul sums it up very succinctly in Romans 3:23:

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Unlike the Badgers, who in the aftermath of a bad game work harder, train longer and rebound to stomp the opposition and work their way to the bowl game, we can't simply work ourselves out of the hole in which we sit.  We cannot in our own power work ourselves into a state that is acceptable to God.

That's what is so wonderful about what Christmas represents:  knowing we are utterly lost, God reaches out with a solution.  How extraordinary that the God who created our universe would take on the form of His creation, enter into and interact with it, ultimately providing a way for us to be reconciled to Him.

Astounding.