And you THOUGHT the Grinch's heart was small....

This year marks the 50th anniversary of THE GRINCH! It's such a great story, a mean green guy stealing a whole city's presents THEN having a sudden and unexplained change of heart and returning all the presents. Then the whole city gets together for a community potluck.

The Grinch is a story that I think a lot of people appreciate because we see a character whose hurt and broken. We don't know his full history, but we can assume it's been pretty rough. We can relate b/c all of us have been hurt at some point. THEN we see the character undergo this amazing transformation. His heart grows, he realizes all that he did wrong, and he is forgiven. We all wish we could undergo such a positive life transformation. The story has the perfect happy ending.

We know though that life isn't a movie. A LOT of stories don't end with a nice happy ending. For a lot of families in the city of Bethlehem a few thousand years ago, their stories were effected in the most tragic way imaginable.

SEE the very first Grinch who tried to ruin Christmas was named King Herod. Herod was the king of Judea at the time of Jesus birth. His heart was probably 5 sizes smaller than the Grinch's. Herod was COMPLETELY paranoid that Jesus would take over and become the king. Well, Herod was ALREADY the king and wouldn't let anything like this happen.

Herod was visited by Wise men from the east (the same wise guys who would visit Jesus.) They shared the prophecy of a following a star and being led to a baby who would be the king of the Jews. King Herod tried to trick the Wisemen into returning to him after they saw the child to tell him exactly where the child was. The wise men though were told in a dream to not return to King Herod. So after they visited the baby Jesus, the wise men returned home a different route.

King Herod was FURIOUS! He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under. Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt with baby Jesus but there was no happy ending for many of the other families in Bethlehem. They lost their sons at the hand of this evil king.

Definitely NOT a happy ending, BUT this is EXACTLY the reason why Jesus was saved. Jesus would live, die, and rise again. Jesus did this to take away and forgive all the sin and evil of our world. We would all be given a clean slate of sin because of what Jesus did. 
  
So while the Grinch is just a movie (even if it's a really good one), I want YOU to focus on the scene at the end of the Grinch. The Grinch has been totally forgiven by the Who's, he is given us a fresh start. THAT is YOU and ME everyday because of Jesus. We are forgiven. Anything bad we have done in the past has been taken away. AMEN and enjoy your roast beast!