Summary
This is the Christmas testimony of Balthasar Oswaldo Jones (who looks a lot like Peter Hiett), “Ozzie” the Wizard, the third Wiseman.
Ozzie appeared to be The Great and Powerful Oz.
He wanted people to like him, but the “him” that he wanted people to like was a lie.
He would say, “Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain.”
But he was the little man behind the curtain—sad, weak, scared and very lonely.
He went to Bethlehem to “do a deal”—to schmooze the great God, who lived behind an immense curtain in the stone temple in the land of Judah.
But how do you “do a deal” with someone that great?
What do you get for the One who has everything?
If He has everything, and you give Him anything, it is His own stolen something that you have given Him. That is bad schmoozing.
The star directed Ozzie and his wizard friends to a shack and a Baby.
He attempted to enchant God to himself from behind a curtain of false power and stolen glory, but the great and powerful God enchanted Ozzie to Himself from behind a curtain of weak and flabby baby flesh.
The Baby was not impressed with the Great and Powerful Oz. In fact, He hated the Great and Powerful Oz, for the Great and Powerful Oz was a lie—a lie, which kept Him from the little man behind the curtain.
Ozzie gave to Jesus the Great and Powerful Oz, and then, the thing He desired most—the little man behind the curtain.
That night the Great and Powerful Oz died and Oswaldo was set free.
The three wise men went home a different way. Jesus is the way.
Many years later, Jesus’ body was broken at a table and, then, nailed to a tree.
The curtain in that ancient stone temple ripped from the top to the bottom.
The Body of Christ is that torn curtain and the eternal covenant: God doing a deal.
We are all terrified of Love because Love destroys every curtain.
“Completely Astounding:” The thing we fear most is the deepest desire of our own heart—Love.
God is Love. Jesus is Love with us—Immanuel.
For Christmas, give God the one thing that He most desires . . . and may not “have”—the little man, the little woman, behind the curtain.