Imagine your next birthday party. Ribbons, boxes and bows. Decorations are hung everywhere. Then you are lead over to a corner and sat on a small chair. You watch as everyone begins to hand each other birthday cards and gifts. They open them with surprise and excitement. It’s joyous. Periodically, someone looks over your way, waves, and says “Happy Birthday!”
The prophet Isaiah prophesied that a child would be born (9:6). Then, as if to call attention to the monumental importance of this child, he went on to say that a son would be given. Why? “For this is how God loved the world, that He gave His only son…”John 3:16 Jesus, God’s only son, born of a virgin, simply in an effort to show the world how much God loved them. And this was no haphazard birth. It was no accident. The Apostle Paul proclaims in Galatians 4 that “…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His son… so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (vs 4 &5 ESV) God’s only son, given so that we too might be called sons and daughters of God. Amazing.
And yet, perhaps the saddest verse in all of the Bible is John 1:11 “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” (KJV) Jesus was born in the shadow of the cross.
And so we celebrate Christmas. The birth of Christ. God’s “unspeakable” gift. Given freely, at exactly the right time. And we too often leave Him out.
This year, keep Christ in your Christmas,be sure to read Matthew’s and Luke’s account of His birth. Sing Noel. Stand up when you hear the Hallelujah Chorus…Make His story…THE story…
Merry Christmas!!
Source: AACC
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