Christmas is often a time for us to spend with family and friends, either in church or not. We all want to enjoy the festive season, at times gobble down some mouth-watering Christmas dinner food, and just enjoy the cool weather. But there's something we all need to know about Christmas.
Christmas is both a sad story and a joyful one.
A Sad Story
Many of us miss it, but the first Christmas happened because Christ came to this broken and fallen world. He, the God of all creation, took the form of a created being. He, who is both the beginning and the end, subjected Himself to time and space. He, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, chose to limit Himself with human limitations.
More than that, He had to endure leaving the comforts of His heavenly home and come to earth as a frail, weak, and vulnerable baby who needed the protection of earthly parents.
He let go of all the comforts and the privileges that He had, except for one: His relationship with His Father.
Many of us think of Christmas as a joyful time to celebrate one another, but in reality Christmas was a time for Jesus to become separated from His Father, in a sense. He came to earth to reach out to us and let us know who the Father really is. He had to become a servant in order to do that.
Most of all, He knew that He came to earth for one simple, painful, agonizing truth. He was born to die for sinful men, including me and you.
A Joyful Hope
"For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)
Friends, while Christmas for us is a time to give gifts, Christmas for the Father was the right time to give up what He loved the most: His only begotten Son (see John 3:16). Christmas for the Son, on the other hand, was this: that He would give up His life to fulfill the Father's will, purchase our freedom from sin, death, and the devil, and bring us back to God as God's children. (see John 6:38; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:12-14; Galatians 3:26)
We must never forget this, friends. Christmas should remind us of our joyful hope. Not that we'd receive a brand-new desired item. Not that we'd spend a lot of time with family and friends over meals and other activities.
It's about Christ who came as a baby, lived as a normal human being, died on the cross to purchase our freedom, and rose from the dead to let us live free for Him.
Merry Christmas, dear reader.
