
A SAVIOR IS BORN!
For our family, Christmas is easily one of our favorite times of the year! There is something about the Christmas season that makes us all be filled with childlike giddiness and eager expectation for what’s to come. Every year we come to this place to prepare for the coming of our Savior, and for me, every year it gets more and more significant and special. Take the lights that adorn our Christmas trees for example— they are captivating because they shine brightest in the darkness of the night preparing all who look to receive the light of the world. John 1:4-5-“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
The childlike giddiness to me represents the fact that we were all created to have the dignity and the freedom to hope. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” For “all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).
This Christmas season, I have been reflecting on this idea that every year we end off the year hoping for what’s to come. Culturally we have been sensitized to hope for what’s to come in a new year and make goals for what needs to change. I believe, though, that in our spirits, every individual is hoping and searching not for quick fixes and new years resolutions, but for the Savior who has been born unto us. We celebrate in this season what the angel came to tell the shepherds on the night of the precious Savior’s birth:
“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
The good news that we remember and celebrate this Christmas is this: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
Jesus Christ came into the world in the form of a baby not to receive recognition or earthly power but to be nailed to a cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. As the apostle Paul says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
What an inexpressible joy it is to remember the coming of the Savior and reflect on the reality that his coming means his death, his death means his resurrection, and his resurrection means the gift of eternal life for all those who believe in him.
Romans 10:12-13: “…the same Lord is Lord of all and richly bless all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Join our family in rejoicing in the good news of Christ coming near and bringing salvation to all those who believe in him! Let your heart be light! Have a merry Christmas, for Christmas is indeed a time for celebration!