Have you noticed the way Christmas affects people? This is the time of year that you see such peculiar behavior.
What makes people totally redecorate their houses with trees, candles, lights, and outdoor displays? Grown men will risk life and limb to put lights on the roofs of their houses, just to out do their neighbors. Families will trek out to the woods to cut down a perfectly healthy tree, cover it with fake snow, rearrange furniture to put it up in their house, decorate it with lights and ornaments, as it slowly dies. It doesn’t make sense, but after all, it’s Christmas.
Only at Christmas time, do you find people eating things like “fruitcake” and drinking stuff called “egg nog.” This time of year, people will fight traffic to go to the mall and park two times zones away, to brotherly shove one another, to stand in long check-out lines, to spend money they don’t have, to purchase gifts for people who don’t need them. It doesn’t make much sense, but after all, it’s Christmas.
Over two thousand years ago, God sent His Son into the world, not as a King or mighty warrior, but as a baby wrapped in rags with a feed trough for a bed. Jesus, was not born in a major city like Rome nor Jerusalem, but instead a small town called Bethlehem. His earthly parents were not royalty or rich, just an ordinary carpenter and his young wife. His miraculous arrival was first announced to lowly shepherds and stargazers instead of the high priests or world leaders. All this strikes me as a bit peculiar…but after all, it’s Christmas. Only God would have ever thought of Christmas.
In the midst of the craziness of Christmas time, never lose sight that we celebrate the Incarnation of Christ. God gave the world, a gift wrapped in human flesh to dwell among men to reveal God to us. He lived without sin but died for sinners like me. He rose from the grave to prove that He truly was Lord of all and that everlasting life was His to give, as a gift to all who would believe. That doesn’t make much sense, but after all, it is Christmas.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son that whoseover believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life."…(John 3:16)May the greatest gift of all be yours!
Have a Blessed Christmas,
Ellis & Jackie Hayden
