I was at a bible study a few weeks ago when something incredible happened. The topic was contentment and the guest speaker was a woman further down the road of life, sharing with brittle honesty how little her life is what she had hoped and dreamed it would be. And no, she admitted, that reality is not always (or ever) easy. In fact, it’s actually both physically and emotionally painful. But, “I have to tell you,” she said, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts,

“Jesus is the most fabulous I’ve ever known.”

Silence.

She kept on, saying that because of Jesus, she could endure her life circumstances because the totality of who He is allows contentment in the midst of her undesirable situation.

As the depth of that honest, vulnerable declaration sunk in across the room, I looked around – girls were smiling, they were wide-eyed and nodding.

I’ve talked about this before, but the moment I started to realize that Jesus came not only to save his creation, but to show them how to live – that click of gears changed everything.

Jesus – the God-man that lived on earth for 33 years – he lived the best life. He loved well, he served well, he laughed and stood up for things and spoke the truth. I think he was probably the most dazzling yet down-to-earth person the earth has ever witnessed. Dazzling in the sense that people were naturally drawn to him. He was guy who was always giving away his time, that remembered the details of your last conversation, that could tell a good story to the whole room. He was the guy who saw you – no matter who you were. Down-to-earth because he was from a small town, worked a common job that required time, patience and hard labor. He had a core group of people that he walked and lived life with – and in it all, he lived with a depth, a veracity, an authenticity that wasn’t tethered to the world.

He is the most fabulous person I’ve ever known.

And the more I see and feel that declaration, the more I want to feel it. I want it to sink deeper and deeper into my bones and at the same time, rise up  to be the headline of every day, of every moment. He is the most fantastic person – do you know that, yet?

There’s this scene in the movie Last of the Mochicans. They’ve been on the run and are literally backed into a corner, moments away from being captured. If Daniel Day Lewis’ character doesn’t leave now, there’s little to no possible chance that any of them will be saved. He looks at the woman that he’s falling in love with and with absolute intensity promises, I will find you.

My friends, that is what this season is about.

As if when Adam and Eve left Eden, Jesus was there saying, I will find you. And then, thousands of years later, he began the fulfillment of that declaration in a cave in Bethlehem. He found us then and he finds us now –  in our brokenness and pain and fear and in our hopes and dreams and plans.

Sit in that beauty. Let Him show you who He truly is. Let Him find you. Because if you do, I promise, the only thing you’ll ever really want is a deeper look.