A Pottery Barn-like-glow emanating from the fireplace.
The resplendence of tinfoil seraphs.
The smile on a child’s face as she stands beside your bed at 4:33 AM with eyes that say, “Daddy, is it time yet?”
These expressions of love-light gleaming are special gifts from God, enchanting and enriching our hearts; but they are not the reason for Christmas. So what is it?
The reason for Christmas is best summarized in one word: GRACE
God the Father, overlooking his wayward creation in the crucible of despond, offered the greatest gift imaginable–his Son. What a breathtaking sight: The One who spoke the universe into existence now a speechless infant. Divine majesty in the midst of the mundane. The Eternal One on the ground beside sheep manure. The embodiment of perfect love lying in a feeding trough, through the womb of a teenager, wrapped in swaddling clothes. And in the fullness of time, this Infant would be pierced by nails of divine judgment, suffering and dying on behalf of humanity, so that we—men and women in frantic search of life—would find a way home. As Paul says in Romans 5:8-11.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
This Christmas, as we rejoice, let us do so because of Jesus Christ, through whom we enjoy the gift of new life!
