The Gift of Christmas

All around at Christmastime you see the hurried shoppers all ticking off their lists. Gifts for family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and don't forget the mailman. Organizing packages and Christmas cards for mailing (perhaps with a special note or family newsletter).  Pick out the tree and bring out the decorations from the attic. Then there is decorating the house and attending events. Adding to our already busy schedules to prepare ourselves for the great holiday to celebrate the birth of a Savior. 

Is it any wonder that so often Christ gets lost in the activity of the season?  To keep Christ IN Christmas you have to be intentional. Most of the activity has very little to so with Christ anyway. Listen to the music played over the radio on most secular stations, there is nary a Savior mentioned. It is holiday music for sure singing of the joys of snow, being together with (or apart from) family, warm feelings on seeing decorations, or reaching out to a shut in - but no Christ.

I long for family oriented entertainment on television. There is hardly any left, but at Christmas there are special programming for the family, but even that has removed the Savior and replaced him with a package. You won't find a Savior in the Santa specials, Frosty or in The Christmas Story. This season is the hope of every retailer anticipating making up for the losses through the remainder of the year. 

A few churches still have Christmas Eve celebrations but most close their doors on the actual holiday allowing their members to enjoy family celebrations. If ever we needed to have the true purpose of Christmas returned to its celebration it is now. Thank God for the families that still out out a nativity, but I really wish they wouldn't put Santa next to it - mixed messages. 

I am grateful for the few Christian stations that actually play hymns. When I think of celebrating Christmas, I remember the hymn - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. It is a sad and mournful tune about the state of utter bondage we find ourselves in. The sin that enslaves us, yet we have the promised hope of a Savior. We have heard the story so many times that it has lost its meaning I fear. Even today we have the hope of his return to ransom us out of this world turned against God and the promise of Jesus' coming reign on earth. 

If we get so busy that we miss the anticipation of the Lord's coming then we have missed it all. We can go through the motions of the holiday and never experience the wonder of a Savior. This Savior brings the world hope and joy knowing we can be forgiven our sins and we can enjoy the hope of Heaven. This should make us happy even to being tears to our eyes. 

This season should be our greatest season of all. The Light of the world came to earth and shone so brightly my sin was revealed to me and my chains were exposed. But glory to God, he had the means to wash my sins from me and to break the chains that held me bound. How do we thank God adequately for the gift of a Savior?  

Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.