The 2012 Christmas shopping season is off to a very fast start this year. Retail stores opened late on Thanksgiving eve for the first time with enticing deals too good to pass up. Then there’s the traditional onslaught of shoppers hitting the stores before dawn on Black Friday, and now the day after has been dubbed small Business Saturday, lest we forget the bargains offered at the independent stores outside the big malls and then there’s the pinnacle of frenetic shopping... Cyber Monday when everyone goes online and buys and buys and buys until carpel tunnel syndrome cripples the mouse hand.
Shopping, buying stuff for family and friends, has become the defining characteristic of the Holiday season. It’s not Christmas anymore... it’s a secular shopping frenzy. The true meaning of December 25th is waning in the hearts and minds and many. Jesus, the Christ? Who’s that? What’s he got to do with a 52” flat screen TV at the unbelievable price of $299?
The evidence is all around us... the growing use of “Season’s Greetings!” or “Happy Holidays!” rather than “Merry Christmas!” Businesses and individuals who prefer not to mention Christmas claim they don’t want to offend anyone who is not a Christian. I say that if the traditional words containing Christ’s name offend, then so be it. People who understand the authentic meaning of Christmas will not worry about displeasing others; they will simply be thankful that they have a Savior to honor, proclaim and share with the world.
Christmas is a celebration of the historic moment when God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ for the purpose of redeeming sinful man. This story begins not in a manger, but rather in Adam and Eve’s garden. There, the Lord initiated a plan that included a genealogical line that would remain unbroken throughout centuries of human suffering, slavery, famine, and turbulence, ultimately leading to the arrival of the long promised Messiah.
From the beginning of time, God prepared the world for Christ’s arrival and the impact his presence would have on humanity then, now and forevermore. Roman conquests placed men like Caesar Augustus in charge—his call for a census served God’s purposes by leading Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where the prophesied Messiah was to be born. (Micah 5:2) And Rome’s influence also led to a network of roads, which years later would enable the Apostle Paul and many others to spread the Good News of the risen Jesus Christ to the known world.
God arranged all of this so that at just the right time, Jesus Christ could arrive on earth as a human baby who would grow up to be our Savior, dying for mankind’s sins. We should be truly thankful for Christmas! God’s gift to humanity lasts forever, has eternal benefits and keeps on giving.
The Message of Christmas (Luke 2:1-20)
The message of Christmas isn’t just embodied in familiar nativity images... that of a baby born, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger and surrounded by strange characters and animals. We must remember the reason this baby was born. There has never been, nor will there ever be again, a child born like the Christ-child.
The true message of Christmas is that the Eternal God came to earth, born of a human woman, in the form of man, in order to save His own creation. It was a necessity, because fallen man was trapped by the ravages of sin. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, so God’s perfect plan meant He had to provide a substitutionary sacrifice to atone for man’s sin. That tiny baby in swaddling clothes came for a purpose. He came to die so that humanity might live!
Those infant hands that reached for mommy as a child, were the very same hands that would later be nailed to a rugged, wooden cross. They were the same hands that, though scarred, carefully folded his burial wrappings (John 20:7). When He rose from the dead, He defeated sin and death and opened the way for humanity to embrace the promise of eternal life.
This Christmas season, when everything seems so frantic, don’t let yourself get caught up in the materialism and busyness and miss the best deal that’s even been. When you come across a manger scene, notice the baby, but think beyond Christ’s infancy to the real reason for His coming. Make an effort to remember the real message of Christmas.
Remember His hands. Remember His heart. Remember His undying love for you.
