It’s a little late but I wanted to share some of the thoughts I had over the Christmas holiday. I shared some of these with Life Bridge on Christmas Eve.
The last few weeks we’ve been talking about Simply Christmas here at Life Bridge. We’ve seen how for hundreds of years the world anticipated the coming of a savior. We’ve seen how generosity was shown when the wise men brought Jesus gifts. We’ve celebrated his coming with lights and music. And last week we learned how simply Jesus really did come into the world while his parents were on vacation for of all things, to pay taxes. That’s my kind of vacation… Tonight we are taking some time to think about what his coming means to each of us. When I think about Christmas many things come to mind. From family get togethers and eating way too many cookies. Ok I want to stop here. If you don’t know me that well, me saying way too many cookies means WAYYY too many cookies. Oh and cookie dough too. That stuff is so good. Don’t ask my mom how much of the cookie dough she made this year never made it to the oven. Christmas brings so many more things to mind too. From a fat man in a red suit bringing presents, to Christmas carols and candle light services. Christmas is a time to come together and celebrate. We see family members that we haven’t seen since this time last year. But most importantly, we celebrate the uncommon and completely backwards birth of our savior. The story is so unlikely. A loving God providing a way to salvation though a baby. This baby. He didn’t have that grand of an entrance either. Sure the wise men and shepherds came to greet him. But he was born like most kids in his day. Humbling really. He didn’t descend from heaven and announce that he was God, here to save the world, and start ordering people around. He was actually born and grew up like the rest of us. I guess that’s the most remarkable thing to me in the Christmas story. A God, who can do anything he wants, chose not to be above us but to become one of us. He could have written us off. Let us go on to our own demise. He had every right to. We walked away from him and let him down at every opportunity. How much it pained him to watch his creation crumble and fall. Even more it had to pain him to send his son down into our darkness. I think Isaiah said it best “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—light!” God sent his light so that we could become light. A light to those in darkness. What a picture of a loving and forgiving God. So, what all does this mean to me? Well, Christmas is so much more to me than just celebrating Jesus’ birth. It is celebrating the reason for his coming to the earth, his life on earth, and God’s unconventional plan to save us all. It is a time to share our love with family and friends. A time to think about the less fortunate. To take the example of the wise men and give gifts to our loved ones. I heard this line in a song recently and it stuck with me. It said “Here’s to the birthday boy who saved our lives” So as you spend time with family tomorrow exchanging presents and having that yummy Christmas dinner don’t forget about the reason this day started. The birthday boy who saved our lives. Merry Christmas everybody.
