Christmas Present

I love the holiday season. I love all the things about Christmas that many people consider a hassle. I love shopping for the perfect gift for my loved ones. I love to decorate my house. I love to bake, to entertain and to sit on the couch and admire my beautiful Christmas tree. 

We have a lot of traditions in our family that accompany the Christmas season.  We pick our Christmas tree on the weekend following Thanksgiving and have a tree decorating party with our family. With mom being gone this year, the tradition was carried on at my sister’s house.  We host a few annual parties, we celebrate Christmas Eve first at church, and then at dinner with friends. On Christmas Eve everyone gets to open one special present-always new pajamas- so that you look good in the pictures the next morning! We have Christmas day with family; this year at our house. We exchange Christmas presents; a show of our love for each other and joy of being together to celebrate Jesus’ birth. 

With all of these traditions, I sometimes have to remind myself, in the midst of all the fun and preparation, to remain Christmas Present.  I want my heart and mind to be focused on the real reason that we celebrate at Christmas.

I want to be Christmas present. I want to be present in this moment of celebrating Jesus’ birth. I want my traditions to be built around something with more foundation than boxes, bows and shining lights.

Luke 2:11  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” 

We celebrate because He is Present.

Love Story

 

I was thinking about the plot of a basic love story: girl meets boy, relationship ensues, huge obstacle gets in the way of love, until finally, love triumphs in the end. 

The love story that is told in scripture about Jesus’ birth is not simply about a boy and a girl. It is a love story for every person, and every generation.  It is not just for a beautiful girl and a misguided man-it is for every girl and every boy-for the beautiful, and the not so beautiful. It is for those who are wayward, and those who are filled with integrity. It has made the cover of magazines, topped the best seller list and has been read at bedtime for countless generations. It never becomes dated or out of style. Why would this story live on in the hearts of mankind?

We have seen countless movies with the same story line, and we see it in the book of Matthew. Mary (nice girl) meets Joseph (man with integrity), and a betrothal is arranged.  Enter the huge obstacle:  Mary is pregnant, by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, while deciding what in the world to do, is greeted by an angel.  When writing down these events, Matthew gives very few details. However, he is big into labels as a way of identifying the major players in the story: An angel visits Joseph, but it isn’t just any angel, it is an “angel of the Lord”. There is no doubt that this meeting was God ordained. Joseph is addressed as “son of David”. There is no question of Joseph’s lineage. Mary is labeled as a virgin. There is no question of her sexual purity.  As readers of the story, we take these facts for granted.  As players in the story, these facts add up to fulfilled prophesy. Joseph and Mary would have known the story as it was passed down. They would have known that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin and come from the line of David.  They became part of the greatest love story of all time.

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.” Isaiah 7:14

The story lives on because God’s promises and plan never fail.  This love story is now a part of each of us who believe. It lives on because our very own Savior, Jesus Christ, lives on. Immanuel, God with us, is still with us today. It is a telling of God’s love for us. His love story for humanity is what we celebrate this Christmas.