I love Christmas! It is an incredible time of year. Normally I’m not allowed to bring the outside in, but every year Karen is so excited to go with our girls and cut down a tree and decorate it with them. We bring out decorations that have been boxed up for 11 months and spread them all over our house. We bake special treats, sing seasonal songs, and get together with family. I enjoy giving things to others and seeing how it makes them happy. Watching my girls open presents and get excited about simple things like socks and doll clothes makes it all the more fun.
A couple of years ago, Reese, my oldest daughter, received toys for a doll from a grandparent when we saw them before Christmas Day, the day she was getting the doll. I don’t think she put two and two together, but if she had, she would have been able to see what was coming.
This is Christmas for us. It’s like a gift you get on Christmas Eve foreshadowing the gift you will receive later.
The reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus lies in the reason He came to live with us. John 3:17 says, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
God gave us the gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus. We can’t earn salvation, can’t buy it, don’t deserve it, and He gave it to us free, no strings attached. Gift-wrapped “snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).
Isn’t Christmas awesome?!? God gives great gifts!
As we put the decorations away, clean up the last of the pine needles, and move into a new year, I hope you will remember the awesome truth that a baby was born in a manger and became “God with us,” so we can be with God.
