Merry Christmas!

I just have a minute here...as I am already running late for the family Christmas. WOOPS!

But I wanted to pop in and wish you a Merry Christmas and share with you a portion of something from today's Advent reading. (This is part of the study I wrote two years ago.) And today - probably more than most Christmases - this is a message I need to hear again. So I share it...for me...and with you.

~ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ~ John 3:17
God saw.

God Himself, seated on a Heavenly throne, high and exalted, honored by the seraphs and angels, saw.

He saw people, created in His own image, who were desperately in need. The sight was not a new one for Almighty God. Hundreds of years earlier, He had gazed into the Garden of Eden, a perfect paradise He had made for the man Adam, and He saw a need. He saw a man in need of companionship, and He arrived to form a woman to complement, help, and sustain him.

And in every human life that followed the creation of Adam and Eve, God saw need. Never did a need go unmet. The love of the Creator for the creation of His hand caused Him to send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.

As the years went by and the Hand of Heaven provided for the people of earth, God saw the greatest need of all: a Savior. He vowed through the prophet Isaiah that the people walking in darkness would see a great light. A child would be born. A son would be given. But not just any son. His own Son. His only Son.

Sitting upon the Throne of Heaven, God saw needs that could only be met by meeting the Savior Himself…

...In His great love, God gave up the One He loved most. His one and only Son. He prepared Jesus for a mission of love and compassion…a mission that would culminate in the ultimate love gift. A life sacrifice that made it possible for us to be called the children of God. He sent Jesus to meet the hurting and to change their lives in gentle tenderness.

And as you celebrate the remembrance of His birth in Bethlehem, you cannot offer back to Him a greater gift than the offering of your own life as a sacrifice. Not in crucifixion, but as a holy and pleasing sacrifice of worship.

This same Savior who arrived to love and touch and bless…wants to be the same Savior to you.

The day of His birth probably wasn’t December 25th. Giant flakes of snow didn’t fall from the sky and carolers didn’t lurk outside the stable door singing songs of good cheer. No hot chocolate with marshmallows and cut out sugar cookies awaited Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, or anyone else. No festively adorned fir tree stood in the corner of the stable, and no brightly-colored gift wrap hid any well-kept secret.

The first Christmas was so very different from the celebrations of this year. But it was no less cause for celebration. Whether it was day or night, hot or cold, a Gift of God came from Heaven’s Halls to bring new life…not just to the arms that welcomed Him that day, but to hearts that would welcome Him for all time forward.

And though none of us were there that first night…and none of us were there for the thirty-some years that followed…we’re not so different from those who met the Savior. And His presence, though not in tangible flesh, is very real…and still His greatest gift.