How do we know God loves us? Christmas tells us so!

This is the message of Christmas. Big business and the media have tried to hijack it to sell us their products as gifts but God has already given you and me the greatest gift of all time - His Son. Christmas tells us God has sent His Son into the world that we may live through Him.

Every year this celebration of Jesus' birth reminds me of our children being born. Each birth was so special. I was in awe. With the first child I was just in awe at the miracle of new life. With the next child I was also in awe at what he or she was to be because, by then, I'd seen new life become a new person. I would find myself staring into the face of our baby trying to draw out of it the image of the person he or she was to become.

Mary and Child. Take a fresh look at baby Jesus - God's Christmas gift to you. You can look in awe at Him as a baby and then keep on looking until your thoughts take you through the life that was before Him. You can go from seeing the baby to seeing how He would grow and what He would become for you and me.

This is why I love reading the Gospels. There I see what Jesus, the baby, was to be, to say and to do. I find such hope from seeing His love, His compassion, His concern for all those He met.

Yesterday I was reading the account of Jesus loosing the woman who for eighteen years was bent over by a spirit of infirmity, unable to straighten up. On seeing her, Jesus called her to Him and said to her,

"Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity."

Luke 13:12 - NKJV

My heart rejoices when I read that. I rejoice, not just for the woman but for myself and for everyone I love and am concerned about. I rejoice knowing Jesus hasn't changed from that time till now.

Jesus is still the same today. He's still calling people to come up so close to Him that He can touch them. He's still speaking and He's still healing! He lives today for you and me.

Christmas is the celebration of the Christ's arrival! What a special event in human history! The apostle John declared that wonderful event this way,

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:12 - NKJV

And the apostle Paul informs us,

When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.

Galatians 4:4-5 - NKJV

Never let anyone rob you of your opportunity to celebrate Christ's arrival. The time we call Christmas is the best opportunity to do that. Pretty much the whole of the Christian Church worldwide uses the same opportune date for that celebration. It is not a date that can be shown to be the actual birth day of Jesus Christ but, since no one knows what date that actually was, then December 25th is as good a date as any other for Christians to celebrate that marvellous arrival of their Saviour.

Many, many non-Christians celebrate Christmas too. They don't know what they are celebrating. They cannot help though but reflect that Christmas is a celebration marking the birth of the Christ.

Merry Christmas

SUPPLEMENT: Song words to an appropriate Christmas song.

CHORUS:

At Christmas time

Don't follow the herd

Think on Jesus

And follow His word

He came to this earth

On that Christmas night,

Born of a virgin

And the Bringer of Light.

He grew up like us,

He knew right from wrong,

But His time on this earth

Wasn't for long.

He was hung on a tree.

He bore all our sins,

He died just for me.

So I'll celebrate Christmas

The way it should be,

I'll worship my Saviour,

For His love is free.

Words by Margaret Dowding. Music by Jerry Garry.

Copyright 1994 Margaret Dowding