Hopping down the bunny trail

Judges 8:27 And Gideon a made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

Last Christmas, my oldest son Cal was able to go with me on his first mission trip to Honduras. As part of the trip experience, Cal took some Christmas cards down from friends and classmates to share with our impoverished friends as we shared the Gospel, food and hugs. Watching your 8 year old interact with grace and share with anyone is wonderful, but watching Cal without hesitation, operate in a abject poverty environment was a Huge Christmas present. The downside to all this was what the cards said that his "Christian" friends had written. I had to translate these on the fly in my broken English which was hard enough, but I also had to add some words into my translation so that Christ was involved in Christmas. I will never forget kneeling down to read a card to two little 9 year old Honduran's that read:
(name's changed for obvious reasons)

My name is Mike
I have an elf named Will
I hope you get what you want for Christmas.

If that does not truly reflect our culture's view of Christmas, I am not sure what does. The iconic Santa isn't enough anymore, so we had to add elf's in the mix and of course the point of it all is that Christmas means you get what you want! It was a surreal moment for me as I processed the fact that this card was written to encourage people in Christ but eliminated Him and WHY he came totally and replaced Him with man made inventions.

When you look at what Gideon did in Judges 8:27, there is little difference in how big the mark gets missed. Gideon, who God uses mightily for His will, and only four verses earlier refuses the Israelites request to rule them in God's place (so that He does not steal God's glory) makes an idol. The idol is a snare that causes Israel to whore after it. A casual misstep, if you will, of a man who God used heroically, causes many to sin and derail their worship to God. A non God-intentional act producing a man made distraction that takes His place as the recipient of our worship. Tragic, but history does repeat itself.

Easter is this Sunday. Is it possible that we have unintentionally missed the point by creating something man made that distracts our affections from the Christ of the Cross? I would say that weaving a a celebration of the Persian god of fertility, Esther, in with a majestic bunny that hops through the house leaving candy might be a distraction. Don't turn me off, the bunny want send you to hell, but your sin will, and the bunny can not justify your sin, only Jesus can and Sunday is about HIM alone!

So ask yourself, ask your kids, what holds our attention as we look to Sunday?

Bunnies, egg hunts, chocolate, the perfect family lunch?
Or maybe it is which dress you will where or what hat looks the best?

What about the environment we will produce on Sunday in our homes for our kids? Does it fuel their desire for Christ or chocolate? Are they focused on their need of Justification or jelly beans?

Warning: if those are the answers, then we have followed the death spiral pattern laid out in Romans 1 of choosing to worship created things over the creator! If we are unable to set our entire affections on Him the day of His and our Victory, do we really think we will be able to on any other day?

We all probably have some repenting to do right about now. I am hitting my knees......Celebrating with gifts is one thing, celebrating the gifts and not the giver is another!