Little Drummer Boy

18 days until Christmas. I can not wait. As we've come into this Advent season, for the first time really, I've understood what this season is all about.

Yes, for the past 16 years of my life, I've known that Jesus was "born on Christmas" and that it's important because He offers us hope and redemption, but for the first time, I'm beginning to understand how great of a sinner I am and how badly I need Him. 

“Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.”

-Acts 17:25, HCSB

The song "Little Drummer Boy" came on the radio as I was driving to school this morning. This time, the words stuck out to me more than the "rum-pum-pum"s did, and I heard a beautiful story that we all can identify with. 

"'Come,' they told me...A newborn King to see"

There is a new King that everyone says I need to see.

"Our finest gifts we bring...to lay before the king."

We bring our best things to give Him.

"Little baby...I am a poor boy, too...I have no gift to bring...that is fit to give our King"

I do not have much. I don't even have a worthy gift to bring You.

Isn't that all of our stories?

I've been told of a king who has come to save me, and once I got there, I realized I didn't have anything to offer Him?

"Shall I play for you...on my drum?"

My drum is the best I have, so I am offering that to you.

Once we understand our inadequacies and begin to acknowledge just how little we are compared to Jesus, don't we all try to bring our best to the table? 

For this little boy, it was his drum, and later in the song, we learn that Mary lets him play his drum, and Jesus smiles and is pleased by it, even though it was just a song on a drum.

Jesus wants our best, no matter what it looks (or sounds) like.

 "He is neither served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and all things breath," but He wants us. He doesn't need us by any stretch of the imagination, but He, the maker of the universe, wants us despite what little we bring to the table.

I need Jesus daily. I need Jesus hourly. I need Jesus minutely. I need Jesus every second of every day of my entire life because I am so unworthy. Even though I am so unworthy, He still loves me unconditionally, so that is why I wait for His arrival.

-Lauren