The Christmas Season has once again come to my city! How do I know? The decorated shops are filled with gift-seekers; there is an overcrowding hustle and bustle happening throughout the malls; long line-up of cars patiently, or not, searching for a parking space.
I would call it a Santa–Claustrophobia.
I am glad most of my shopping happened in November. But why Christmas? At Christmas we celebrate the birthday of the most important person who has ever lived.
After all, He is the centrepiece of our civilization — as we name what happened before His birth, B.C. and what happened after, A.D.
The blessing of Christmas is first and foremost, the birth of Jesus Christ in a Bethlehem stable.
In a 1929 Saturday Evening Post interview, Albert Einstein said, “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene…. No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”
I love hearing the name, Immanuel. Matthew 1:23 says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him 'Immanuel' which means, 'God with us.'”
I’m amazed that the all powerful God became a human being. Jesus lived on earth as a man, but was never less than God.
The story continues, for at Easter time, God becomes “God for us.” 1 Peter 3:18 reminds us, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.”
I believe we will not truly appreciate the significance of Christmas without remembering Easter and the cross. Then, after returning to heaven, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, making possible “God in us.”
This is why Christmas is not just a festival.
Understanding the blessing of that first Christmas, “God with us,” then His stepping into our place that first Easter, “God for us,” we now can experience an even greater blessing of “God in us” by His indwelling Spirit. What a wonderful “true story!”
Why should we hesitate to accept this gracious gift offered again this Christmas — the gift of Himself?
How would you feel if someone refused a gift you graciously and lovingly offered?
Such rejection must pain our Creator and Heavenly Father’s heart. Our world needs to hear the “good news” announced by a host of angels that first Christmas.
I recently read these statistics: “Today more than 60 per cent of Canadians rarely or never attend church. Among the young people who do, half think that many religions can lead to eternal life. And since 1960, the number of people who say they have no religious affiliation has increased 400 per cent."
Canada needs the Jesus who is “the Reason for the Season!”
A father wanted to read a magazine but was bothered by his little girl, Shelby.
Finally, he tore a sheet out of his magazine on which was printed the map of the world.
Tearing it into small pieces, he gave it to Shelby and said, “Go into the other room and see if you can put this together."
After a few minutes, Shelby returned and handed him the map correctly fitted together.
The father was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly.
“Oh,” she said, “on the other side of the paper is a picture of Jesus. When I got all of Jesus back where He belonged, then the world came together.”
In the spirit of Tiny Tim — “May God Bless Us Everyone!"
— beulah
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