The very best gift

The presents are all gone from under the Christmas tree. Mountains of brightly colored wrapping paper are spilling out of garbage cans that line our streets. Our refrigerators are packed full of leftovers that will add pounds to our bodies, extra weight we will all want to shed next year. All the last minute gift shopping is over as people now return to exchange those not so perfect gifts back to the stores from which they came. Trash truck drivers frown at a plethora of large, stiff dried out conifers that will need to be hauled away, eventually chipped into mulch and returned to the ground from which they came.

The Christmas season is so much more than shopping for gifts and preparing food for family and friends. Its all about the One gift that is available to all people; it can’t be bought or worked for as it  is a gift from God. The advent of the birth of the Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Many times through all the hustle and bustle to search for those perfect gifts, we often miss the true meaning of Christmas.

The Christmas story is about sacrificial giving. It’s about a Father who gives away His most precious possession to save people who don’t deserve being saved in the first place.  God gave the world His only Son to be born of a virgin, to grow into a man and finally to die a substitution death for all mankind. The bible says that we are all sinners who have fallen short of requirements a holy God demands. Our free will along with the choices we make in life fall far short of a holy God’s standards.

The pressures of this joyous season can often frustrate and cloud our good sentiments. While we often find great gifts, they seldom fit just right or last very long. Many new  toys will be broken by the very next day. However the gift that God has given to the world, His One and Only Son, is the greatest gift of all time and will never break or wear out. It is a gift that the bible says we don’t deserve; we can’t purchase or work to attain. It is a gift of God’s grace where He offers us His son, baby Jesus. It’s not only the story of a miraculous birth, it’s the greatest story ever told.

Mary and Joseph endured many  hardships  as they traveled to Bethlehem for a birth that took place outside in an animal portico. The baby Jesus was then wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the animal’s feeding trough where His only visitors were humble shepherds. Sometime after His birth, while still living in Bethlehem, an unknown number of astrologers from the east would follow a bright star leading them to the new born King of Israel.

It’s this majesty, of the Christmas season, that draws all men to celebrate the world’s only true hope. Decorations, food and fellowship are all wonderful reasons to enjoy this festive season and the closing of yet another year. For many people the season offers them a chance to reach out to others who do not know God’s love. The birth of the Christ child offers them the reason to reach out and herald in the news of the birth of the world’s Savior.

However, the birth of the Savior of the world is just the beginning of God’s plan to redeem all mankind.   The child grows up to become a man who has an deep connection and understanding of God, His laws and His plan to redeem the world. The end of the story takes place 32 years later, on an old rugged Roman cross in Jerusalem with the brutal death of Jesus.

What’s paramount to realize is that the birth this baby, Jesus, would eventually lead to His horrible death. Jesus would be executed alongside two  criminals on a hill just outside Jerusalem. His death would be the payment for our sin. God in all His wisdom created the only way for all of us to have a chance to be saved.

So as all the paper wrappings get thrown away, the colored lights get taken down and put back into their boxes it’s so important to remember the reason for the Christmas season. A baby was born in a manger 2000 years ago grew up into a man who would take upon Himself all the sin of this entire world. As Jesus hung on a Roman, wooden execution device, His feet not quite touching this earth, His hands not quite touching the sky but His death bridged the gap that has always separated us from our Creator.