Friday, December 21, 2007

Have you opened this Gift?

The Christmas season is a special time for all of us. It's special for the children as they dream of Santa and his sleigh traveling from house to house delivering gifts and eating our cookies and milk we leave out for him. As they fall asleep they think about whether they've been naughty or nice and this year by golly, "I'm going to stay awake long enough to see Santa." But it seems we never make it. The next thing you know it's time to wake up and go see what Santa brought us. Can you remember the excitement of running into the living room with the anticipation of seeing if Santa brought you what you had asked for? What a time of year this is for the children!

For the adults, Christmas is many things! It's a time to be together as a family, it's a time to give gifts and presents to your friends and loved ones. It's a wonderful time of great food, snacks, treats, and candy! For those of us that know Jesus, it's especially meaningful. It's a time to reflect on the ultimate gift of all at Christmas time. The birth of Jesus Christ! God's gift to us was his Son Jesus. The bible says he is a gift for all people. The gift is... he's a Savior!

Luke 2:10-11
(10)Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
(11)"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Wow! What a gift for all mankind. We as a people are born into sin, but Jesus was born to save us from this sin. A Savior named Jesus Christ! God gave us a wonderful gift... the gift of eternal life. Now who can top that? Of course the answer is... No one.

As I was listing the things that Christmas is to the adults, I failed to mention that it's also a time of hectic schedules, busy busy work loads. Church activities and shopping until we drop. We become more aware of the folks that are hurting, homeless, and living without. We grieve more this time of year as we miss those that have passed on and maybe this is the first holiday season without them in our midst. We get ourselves into financial trouble if we're not careful because of all the gifts we feel we have to buy for each other. We decorate, we cook, we shop, we hurry, and hurry, and hurry... until we finally get to the day of Christmas and we simply collapse from exhaustion! You know this is the way it is for many of us. The good news however is that through all of this business and all those gifts and presents, the Gift of God's Son is the only thing that matters. All the other is nothing without Christ. Christmas without Christ is just another holiday, but for those of us that believe in the truth of Christ, well, it's everything to us. Where we spend the rest of our life depends on whether we've opened the greatest gift of all on Christmas. The gift of God's Son... Jesus!

My prayer for you this Christmas, is that you open the only gift that matters, the only gift that lasts forever, the only gift of eternal value. Give your heart and Life to Jesus and accept this free gift of Salvation today. You don't even have to wait till Christmas to receive this gift. It's Christmas all year round!

May God bless you this Christmas. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Steve

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