Christmas Gift

One of my favorite Christmas memories is a childhood one--riding home in the family station wagon on Christmas eve. We had just attended our Sunday School Christmas program and received the small, brown paperbag filled with an orange, an apple and frosted animal crackers. We huddled closely together to keep warm and looked for Santa’s sleigh in the sky--thinking one of those twinkling lights must be Rudolph’s nose.

The anticipation rose as we turned into our long lane and knew that those markings in the snow were surely reindeer footprints. Entering the house, there were gifts stacked under the tree. But before opening the gifts, one of us would gather the family Bible, turn to Luke 2 and ask Dad to read The Birth of Jesus.

 

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David... He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Even though we had just heard it at our Christmas Eve service, Dad read it again. We were reminded of God’s gift to us before opening our own gifts.
 

 

 

 

    Philippians 2:7 reads,

He gave up his place with God

and made himself nothing.

He was born to be a man

and became like a servant.

 

       God’s gift to us so many, many years ago came in the form of a baby. A baby born to a virgin, born in a stable, surrounded by ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds.

 

      However, this ordinary night turned into an extraordinary night when a black sky exploded with brightness and the sound of angels pierced the night with song.

 

 

Thanks be to God for His gift

which is too wonderful for words.

2 Corinthians 9:15

     Christmas is but one week away.
As you bake, shop, decorate, listen to carols,
may you be thrilled with that first gift:

God’s son, Jesus,

born to take away the sin of the world.

Born because of God’s love for us.

 

 
From the cradle in Bethlehem to the cross in Jerusalem,
 please consider the love of our Father for you.  

Praise be to God.

 I pray that you… will have the power to understand the greatness of God’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is.”  Ephesians 3:18